Skip to main content

Full text of "MSX Computing (GB)"

See other formats 


A Haymarket publication 


December 1986/January 1987 £1 








1 




















t < 








PRINTERS AND SOFTWARE FOR TOP RESULTS 


t 




WIN A LEVEL 9 YEAR PLANNER AND PEN 





























RRP 


r ’ ’’ - 

b - 

♦ ' *W’ 


if- 


LICENSED FROM 


ENPUfANCE 

GAMES 


If you have any difficulty in obtaining your copy of Football Manager for the MSX please send your cheque or postal order to: 

Endurance Games Ltd, 28 Little Park Gardens, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 6PG. Tel: 01-367 8213. 

Don’t forget to include your name and address and please allow 28 days for delivery. 






















REGULARS 


4 NEWS. Read all about it — 
four pages of the latest MSX 
developments. 

8 POSTBAG. Hints, queries, 
criticisms or praise — keep 
those letters coming. 

25 READER INFO. Find out 
what we’ve done in the past and 
what we are up to in the future. 
Don’t forget to take out a 
subscription. 

65 HIGH SCORES. More dedi- 
cated joystick bashers join our 
high score hall of fame. 

66 CLUBS. Join an MSX club 
and learn how to make friends 
and influence people. 


FEATURES 


14 TOP GAMES. Need ideas 
for Christmas? Martin Banks 
tells us his all time favourite top 
MSX game hits. 

33 COMPETITION. Don think- 
ing caps for our caption com- 
petition and win a Level Nine 
year planner and pen. 

34 DESKTOP PUBLISHING. 
It’s the talk of the town, so find 
out how to produce profession- 
al-looking documents. 

57 COMPETITION WINNERS. 
We list the lucky competition 
winners including those from 
the software review challenge. 


DEPARTMENTS 


18 BASIC. Tim Markes final- 
ises his Basic series and begins 
a Basic programming ques- 
tions and answer column. 

21 ADVENTURE QUEST. 
More problems solved in the 
weird and wonderful world of 
adventure. 

30 ARCADE HINTS. Starting 
this month, a hint and tip 
session for arcade game 
addicts. 


REVIEWS 


26 PRINTERS. What should 
you look for in a printer? Steven 
Mansfield puts together an 
interesting selection and helps 
you choose the right one. 

38 SOFTWARE SCENE. MSX 
software production is on the 
increase. 


LISTINGS 


52 Flex those fingers, tap those 
keys — it’s listings time. 



DECEMBER 1986/JANUARY 1987 




MSX hardware will be harder to find in the shops next year. 
Many of the manufacturers have now completely ex- 
hausted their stocks in this country and are unwilling to 
commit themselves either to bring in new supplies of the 
familiar MSX-1 machines or to launch MSX-2 in the 
foreseeable future. The companies which have effectively 
closed their UK MSX operations are Toshiba, Mitsubishi, 
Panasonic, Sony and Sanyo. Once dealers’ existing stocks 
of these machines are sold, there will be no more from the 
manufacturers to replace them. 

Companies still marketing their MSX products are 
Yamaha and Spectravideo. Yamaha rightly sees the 
enhanced music capabilities of the CX5MII as a unique 
selling point taking it out of the normal home computer 
market. Spectravideo also has an enhanced machine, the 
X’Press, which is now being marketed more as a low-cost 
CP/M micro in the Amstrad mould than as a pure MSX. JVC 
retains some small stocks of the HC-7GB, though what will 
happen when these run out, probably just after Christmas, is 
anyone’s guess. 

What does this mean for MSX users? It’s not all doom and 
gloom. The software scene is surprisingly healthy, as the 
review pages in this issue testify. The signs are that even if 
no-one ever sold another MSX in this country ever again, 
the existing user base, variously estimated at about 
250,000, would be enough to ensure continuing support 
from software houses. Meanwhile the runaway success of 
MSX in the rest of Europe should ensure plenty of support 
from across the channel. 

This issue of MSX Computing features some year-end 
changes. Out goes the old Basic programming course, 
having reached its logical conclusion, and in comes a new 
question-and-answer programming workshop. We have 
also managed to find space for something many of you have 
requested, a regular forum on arcade games, similar to 
Mike Gerrard’s popular adventure department. These 
features can only thrive through your support, so keep the 
questions, information and comments coming. 


The editor welcomes any corrections or additions. Prices quoted in 
editorial and advertisements are correct at the time of going to press but 
may be subject to variation. 

Every care is taken in compiling the contents of this magazine to ensure 
that they are correct and accurate, but the publisher assumes no 
responsibility for any effect from errors or omissions. All material published 
in MSX Computing is copyright and reproduction in whole or in part is 
forbidden, except by permission of the publishers. 

Editorial, advertising and circulation departments: Haymarket Publishing 
Ltd., 38-42 Hampton Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW1 1 0JE 
Telephone: 01-977 8787 

Photosetting and litho origination by Meadway Graphics, Carlisle House, 
198 Victoria Road, Romford, Essex RL1 2NX. Printed by: Chase Webb 
Offset, Plymouth 

(6) 1986 Haymarket Publishing Ltd 





EDITORIAL 

Editor: Simon Craven 
Art Editor: Tony Baldwin 
Photography: Mike Cameron 
Publisher: Gareth Renowden 
Publishing Director: Patrick 
Fuller 

ADVERTISING 
Advertising Manager: Neil 
Alldritt 

Production Manager: Dominic 
Negus 

Production Assistant: Julia Bell 
Advertisement Director: 

Chandra Harrison 

Front cover illustration by Pentrix. 
Technical queries: we regret 
these cannot be answered over 
the telephone. However, should 
you wish to write in we will 
endeavour to answer any queries 
through the magazine. 

UK £16 

Europe ‘ £20 

Overseas £20 

Airmail/Middle East £35 

Airmail/USA, Can, Afr, Ind £42 

Airmail/Aust, NZ, Japan £45 

















Samleco’s up-market Epson competitor 


Competitively speaking 


Prestel link 
with Gold 

Good news for subscribers to 
Prestel, British Telecom’s pub- 
lic videotex service — from 
early December subscribers 
will be able to access Telecom 
Gold, British Telecom’s elec- 
tronic mail system. 

The move follows the crea- 
tion of a new X 29 — based 
gateway link between the two 
services and is the first stage in 
establishing full communica- 
tion between the two networks. 

The X 29 gateway has been 
developed to improve the re- 
ception of Telecom Gold on 
videotex terminals. 

One of the main advantages 
of the link is that information 
sent on a “scrolling” ASCII-type 
terminal will be formatted in a 
Prestel page style which has 24 
lines with 40 characters to a 
line. 

Another asset is that Tele- 
com Gold will look much more 
elegant on a videotex terminal, 
with the last two or three lines of 
message carried forward to the 
top of the next page for easier 
reading. 

Additional features of the link 
include text editing prior to 
transmission as well as simple 
access enabling the user to go 
straight to an ID entry point. 

If you are worried about the 
extra cost, don’t be, because 
Prestel users will only pay the 
equivalent of a local telephone 
call plus both service charges. 

For more details contact 
Prestel on 01 -822 1 056. 


Just arrived 

Bernard Babani has just pub- 
lished its new 1 987 catalogue. 

As well as listing books 
dealing with MSX micros speci- 
fically such as An Introduction 
to MSX BASIC by R. A. and J.W. 
Penfold or Easy Add-On Pro- 
jects for Amstrad and MSX 
Computers by O. Bishop, the 
catalogue also lists many 
books dealing with all aspects 
of computer programming. 

Obtain a free copy by send- 
ing your name and address to 
Bernard Babani at The Gram- 
pians, Shepherds Bush Road, 
London W6 7NF. 

Tel: 01-603 7296. 


Samleco has added a new dot 
matrix printer, the DX-136 re- 
tailing at £350, to its existing 
range of competitively priced 
printers. 

The printer is intended to 
compete with the Epson printer 
range, particularly the very 
widely used FX 1 00 model, and 
has many similar features. 

The 132 column DX-136 
printer has a speed of 120 
characters per second and a 9 


Konix has finally got itself 
together and can now meet the 
demand for its Speed King 
joystick. 

Since last January UK de- 
mand has outstripped supplies 
three times over which meant a 
long wait for customers eager 
to get their hands on one. 

Things got so bad for Konix 
that it had to turn down an order 
for 60,000 joysticks this Sum- 
mer. Konix managing director, 
Wyn Holloway, is optimistic 
about meeting future demands 
and says, “Now that the joystick 
can be produced in sufficient 
quantities we can concentrate 
on ensuring the best joystick 
yet is also the best selling 
joystick yet.” 

Chunky and black with red 
stripes, the Speed King joystick 
has one firing button, micros- 
witch control, and retails at 


by 9 pin head character matrix. 
It can produce draft, corres- 
pondence as well as near letter 
quality print. 

Other printer features in- 
clude a number of different 
typestyles such as enlarged, 
sub-script and italics plus eight 
international languages. The 
DX-136 is provided with a 
tractor feed and has an alterna- 
tive friction feed attachment. 

The special MSX character 


£12.95. It is available from most 
computer shops or by mail 
order direct from Konix, Unit 


set is not included in the printer, 
but it is MSX compatible with 
the parallel interface cartridge 
— included in £350 price tag. 

Alphatech is the main distri- 
butor for Samleco and will be 
supplying the printer to dealers 
around the country. 

Further information on dis- 
tribution can be obtained from 
Alphatech, Marlow Road, 
Bourne End, Bucks, SL8 SSP. 
Tel: (06285) 31411. 


12-14 Sirhowy Hill Industrial 
Estate, Tredegar Gwent, South 
Wales, NP2 4QZ. 




Sputnik shock horror. . . 


King size 
fraud 

Watch out, watch out there’s a 
fraud about! Andrew Steele of 
Cheshire wrote in to warn us 
about King Size by Robtech. 

He purchased the game cas- 
sette from a branch of John 
Menzies in Edinburgh for 
£9.95, and was horrified to find 
that it was a direct rip off from 
not only our magazine listings, 
but bona fide games manufac- 
turers as well. 

The case cover advises us- 
ers that the games cassette 
contains 50 games, but what it 
doesn’t say is that at least 1 2 of 
the games are direct copies of 
games listings published by 
MSX Computing over the past 
year. 

Nor does it mention that a 
game called Golf on the tape is 
an identical copy of Crazy Golf 
by Mr Micro. 

We contacted John Menzies 
in Edinburgh and Nick Gregory, 
product manager of home com- 
puters, told us that after receiv- 
ing this information Menzies 
has decided to discontinue 
selling King Size. 


You might be forgiven for 
thinking that this mind-man- 
gling crew is the cast for 
Konami’s latest zap-a-minute 
cartridge game. In fact it is a 
collective mug shot of the 
entrancingly awful Sigue Sigue 
Sputnik, a group whose main 
aim in life is to make Frankie 


Goes to Hollywood look like the 
Dagenham Girl Pipers. 

We know we need a pretty 
bullet-proof excuse for blight- 
ing the pages of your favourite 
computer magazine with the 
grim visages of the boys behind 
Love Missile Fill, to mention 
but one of their hideous sound 


creations, but this particular 
picture (part of an album cover) 
was hard to ignore. Why is it, we 
wonder, that arch-Sputnik 
Tony James (left) is wearing a 
top hat with MSX written all over 
it? Maybe there is going to be a 
computer program featuring 
these talent-free terrors. 



Konami has grown from suc- 
cess to success in the last two 
years and its operations have 
spread worldwide culminating 
in the opening of a new head- 
quarters in Japan. 

Cartridge software for MSX 
has been a bit thin on the 
ground recently, but Konami 
are hoping to release two 
arcade games and Games 
Master, all in cartridge form, 
before 1 987. 

Games Master is a program 
designed to enhance your play 
of Konami’s other cartridge 

Fido 

update 

This one wasn’t our fault, 
honest. If you’ve been ringing 
the Stockton Fido computer 
bulletin board, you probably 
haven’t been getting the right 
number. The board recently 
moved to (0642) 605838, 6pm 
to 6am. Use 300 baud. 


games and plugs into the 
second cartridge port. 

Once plugged in, players can 
alter stage numbers, player 
numbers as well as changing 
the ranking mode whenever he 
wishes. 

The advantage is that when 
playing a game where you have 
to complete the lower levels 
before moving to a higher level, 
you can bypass this occa- 
sionally tedious process and 
just move straight to a new 
higher level. 

In addition, players can save 


games on tape or disk and also 
print the scores out. 

Games Master costs £1 5.95 
and will be available in early 
December. 

Green Beret is a high action 
arcade game featuring the 
player trying to get through 
German lines while avoiding all 
the dangerous obstacles such 
as guns and tanks which inevit- 
ably accompany such a 
dangerous mission. 

Costing £1 5.95, the cartridge 
will be available just before 
Christmas. 


MSXGolf 
missing lines 
turn up 

Funny things, program listings. 
Sometimes we wonder just 
how many people actually 
bother to type them in. 

Until, that is, something goes 
wrong. The Golf listing in the 
last issue got a few lines 
chopped out of the middle, and 
several hundred of you rang in 
to let us know. The omission 
was entirely your editor’s fault, 
so naturally he got someone 
else to find the missing chunk of 
program. Eventually the crucial 
lines of code were found adher- 
ing sneakily to the underside of 
contributor Phil Rotsky’s ghast- 
ly plastic briefcase. 

2670 PRESET (8,1 75), 2: 
PRINT #1, “Tree.” 

2680 GOSUB 2750 
2690 PRESET 
(8,175),2:COLOR 
2:PRINT#1 ,“Tree.”:COLOR 7 
2700 DI=(RND(1)*4)+1 
2710 RETURN 


Adventureforum 


Adventure game addicts in the 
Reading area will be delighted 
to hear that Level Nine Comput- 
ing is holding its first ever 
Adventure Forum. 

The whole Level Nine team 
will be at ORDEM computer 
store in the Harris Arcade off 
Friar Street, Reading between 
11am and 1pm on Saturday 
1 3th December. 


Apart from talking to you 
about adventure problems, 
Level Nine might have two 
brand new adventure games 
ready. 

The Growing Pains of Adrian 
Mole selling on the Mosaic label 
for £9.95 and Night Ore selling 
on the Rainbow label for £4.95 
are the two titles to look forward 
to. 




Under- 

ware 

We can’t resist telling you about 
the latest great idea from the 
States (at least, that’s what it 
says here). Underware is 
sweeping the microcomputing 
community. Buy one of these 
special ribbons for your Apple 
Imagewriter or Epson MX, RX 
or FX-80 printer and you can 
use your graphics software to 
make iron-on transfers which 
you then apply to your . . . 
er . . . T-shirt. 

This is especially timely as 
this issue of MSX Co mputing 
carries a review of Print-X- 
Press, a software package 
suitable for just such an ap- 
plication. The ribbons cost be- 
tween £9.95 and £1 4.95, and a 
pack of heat transfer paper a 
further £6.95. MGA Microsy- 
stems has these items and 
more: you can contact them 
on (05806) 4278, or write to 
MGA Microsystems, 140 High 
Street, Tenterden, Kent. 


Free software offer 


Prohibitive price tags on busi- 
ness and scientific software 
can be an obstacle to serious 
MSX users, but the Public 
Domain software group has 
come up with a solution. 

Andrew Emmerson, MSX 
Computing contributor and a 
member of the group explains, 
“Many people write their own 
software and wish to share it 
with others without making 
commercial gain." 

“By forming a computer club 
or user group such as Public 
Domain software, users can 
share their utilities, business 
and scientific programs 
amongst fellow enthusiasts.” 

Emmerson continues, “Once 
a group member has written a 
program he thinks other users 
will be interested in, he adver- 
tises it amongst the group and 
asks a small fee to cover his 
costs only.” 

“For instance I’m asking £6 a 
disk for three MSX business 
utilities I’ve just written.” 


“Of course it is illegal to sell 
such programs as they are in 
the Public Domain,” Emmerson 
adds. 

Members of Public Domain 
Software pay annual mem- 
bership costs of £15 and re- 
ceive four magazines per year, 
but the group deals with all sorts 
of computers not just MSX. 

If there is enough interest 
and any other MSX users would 
like to share their software 
ideas with other people 
Emmerson says “I will act as a 
clearing house for ideas, 
although it is important to 
realise that only disk software is 
used and that only serious 
business and utility programs 
are considered." 

It sounds like an excellent 
idea to us and Emmerson can 
be contacted for further in- 
formation at 71 Falcutt Way, 
Northampton, NN2 8PH. Tel: 
0604 8441 30 (after 4pm). 
Please enclose a stamped 
self-addressed envelope. 


General advice to readers 
concerning advertisements 

When replying to advertisements in this issue, you should note the following points: 

1. Always clarify the exact nature of any guarantee being offered. 

2. Never send cash — always a cheque. Postal or Money Order. 

3. Insist on a written receipt. 

4. Clearly state the equipment you seek, and detail any acceptable alternatives. 

5. Request an immediate statement of how and when the goods are to be delivered 
and whether the delivery will be split. 

6. Check by telephone the latest prices and availability of goods you are ordering. 

7. Cases of non-supply or wrong supply of goods should initially be taken up directly 
and as soon as possible with the supplier. 

8. Because of fluctuations in prices and discounts, it is advisable to ensure that you 
reply only to advertisements published in current issues. 


Mail Order Protection Scheme 
(Limited Liability) 

If you ordor goods from mall order advertisers In this magazine and pay by post In 
advance of delivery, this publication (‘MSX Computing') will consider you for 
compensation If the advertiser should become Insolvent or bankrupt, provided: 

1 . You have not received the goods or had your money returned ; and 

2. You write to the publisher of this publication (‘MSX Computing’) explaining the 
position not earlier than 28 days from the day you sent your order and not later 
than 2 months from that day. 

Please do not wait until the last moment to Inform us. When you write, we will tell 
you how to make your claim and what evidence of payment Is required. 

We guaranteeto meet the claims from readers madeln accordance wlththeabove 
procedure as soon aa possible after the advertiser has been declared bankrupt or 
Insol vent up to a limit of £4,500 per annum for any one advertiser so affected and u p 
to £1 3,500 p.a. I n respect of all Insolvent advertisers. Claims may be paid for higher 
amounts, or when the above procedure had not been complied with, at the decision 
of the publication (‘MSX Computing’) but we do not guarantee to do so In view of the 
need to eet some limit to this commitment and to learn quickly of readers’ 
difficulties. 

This guarantee covers only advance payments sent In direct response to an 
advertisement In this magazine (not, for example, payments made In response to 
catalogues etc, received as a result of answering such advertisements). Classified 
advertisements are excluded. 

Note: The sums referred to are annual amounts available for compensation and 
they will be divided equally amongst all valid claims received. 


Foreign 

news 

A number of readers have 
written to Microsoft UK to buy 
copies of the MSX Technical 
Guide and received a letter 
saying that Microsoft can no 
longer supply these. There has 
in fact been a break between 
Microsoft and the Japanese 
ASCII Corporation. 

The result isthat Microsoft no 
longer has any dealings with 
MSX. Microsoft suggest read- 
ers contact the various hard- 
ware manufacturers but this is 
clearly not going to enable you 
to buy the Technical or BIOS 
manuals. 

Instead you will now have to 
write direct to the ASCII Cor- 
poration at Sumitomo Minami 
Aoyama Building, 5-1 1 -5 Mina- 
mi Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 
Japan. 

This is not very satisfactory, 
but unfortunately this is the sort 
of thing that happens when two 
business organisations fall out 
with each other! MSX technical 
books are also rumoured to be 
available from Quest Pub- 
lishing in the USA, but we have 
no address for them — can 
anyone help? 


New Sony 

in France 

The new HB-F700 computer 
just released by Sony in France 
offers a number of new facili- 
ties, not least a mouse. This 
comes supplied as standard, 
as does 25 6K of user RAM and 
128K of screen memory 
(VRAM). To go with the mouse 
there is an on-screen menu 
system based on icons, rather 
like that of Apple’s Macintosh 
and the Atari ST. Thus you have 
pictures of how to move the 
mouse to activate the printer, 
disk drive A (built-in), drive B 
(optional), Basic, notepad, 
dustbin, and so on. Also pro- 
vided is Hi-Brid, a built-in suite 
of interactive programs for the 
electronic office. These com- 
prise Hi-Text (word processor), 
Hi-Base (filer), Hi-Calc 
(spreadsheet) and Hi-Graph (a 
graphics designer package). 
Both English and French lan- 
guage versions are available. 

Apart from this, all the normal 
MSX-2 features are provided, 
down to bit-mapped graphics of 
256 x 212 pixels, each defin- 
able in 256 different colours. At 
a price of 4990 francs (about 
£500) this computer should 
really put Sony back on the 
map: just don’t ask when it will 
be available here! 


Continental 
copy cats 

Just across the water in France 
the MSX magazines are firing 
sniping shots at each other. 
The latest issue of Micros MSX 
points out how one of its rivals. 
MSX Magazine France has 
been copying material from the 
competition, even down to re- 
peating errors in tables of 
technical data. Accepting that 
imitation is the sincerest form of 
flattery, your own MSX Com- 
puting is delighted to see how 
much our French cousins en- 
joyed our map of the game of 
Sorcery. Only the order of 
rooms and numbering of ob- 
jects has been reversed — 
apart from this the text is a I iteral 
translation and the artwork is 
virtually indentical! Plus ca 
change, plus c’est la meme 
chose! 


Hints from 
Holland 



The IBM influence spreads ever wider 



Don’t believe anything you hear 
about MSX-3: that’s the mes- 
sage spelled out in Micros 
MSX. If it ever arrives in the 
Western World it will probably 
carry some other name, to 
escape the reputation of MSX- 
1 and MSX-2 (makeof that what 
you will!). 

In the meantime though, if 
you can’t wait for MSX-3 but 
want the next best thing, Hol- 
land or France is the place to 
go. That’s where you can buy 
the Spectravideo X’Press 16. 

Billed as the most powerful 
home computer ever, the 
X’Press 16 represents a fasci- 
nating hybrid between IBM PC 
clone and MSX-2. It has an 
IBM-style keyboard and 5.25" 
drive, while it generally looks 
like the IBM as well. Full IBM 
compatibility is claimed, with 
built-in MS-DOS operating sys- 
tem and GW-BASIC (notMSX). 
Graphics are PC CGA stan- 
dard, with a colour palette of 
51 2 combinations. Memory is 
vast by MSX standards — 25 6K 
user RAM expandable to 640K 
and an additional 128K for 
enhanced graphics. A PC- 
compatible joystick is also sup- 
plied; a mouse for the mouse 
port (mousehole?) might have 
been more useful. 

But here the similarity with, say, 
the Amstrad and other PC 
clones ends, because the 
X’Press 16 also has MSX-2 


features! So you get the MSX-2 
Advanced Video Display Pro- 
cessor (AVDP) offering 256 x 
212 pixel resolution with 256 
coloursor512x 212 pixels with 
1 6 shades. Sprites — we got 
’em too! Thirty-two in all, with 
multiple colours. You can flip 
the screen for animation 
effects. An exclusive superim- 
pose capability enables you to 
overlay images created by the 
normal PC display on those 
generated by the AVDP. The 
MSX sound capabilities are 
also provided on the new 
X’Press, so you have 8 octaves 
and 3 sound channels, together 
with a programmable envelope 
generator for sound effects. 

A number of bolt-on goodies 
are also listed. A games car- 
tridge adapter will enable you to 
play virtually all MSX games 
and connect standard MSX 
joysticks. A low-cost multi- 
function card adds 384K of 
RAM, and RS232C port and a 
real-time clock and calendar. 
Cooling fans, video adapters 
and a second disk drive are also 
noted. 

The price of the machine will 
be under 2000 Dutch guilders 
(approximately £660) in Hol- 
land and under 9000 francs 
(£900) in France. UK price and 
availability are not yet stated, 
but one thing is sure — you 
won’t be able to upgrade your 
existing X’Press to 1 6 bits! 


MSX is well established in the 
Netherlands and apart from 
several MSX areas on Viditel, 
the Dutch Prestel system, there 
are also a few bulletin boards 
catering for MSX enthusiasts. 

All work is on the standard 
viewdata (1200/75 baud) sys- 
tem and I have given a couple of 
telephone numbers at the end 
of this article in case you wish to 
explore the systems yourself. 

The following hints are just a 
few of the interesting tips and 
ideas I have picked up while 
scanning through these 
boards. Some of the hints may 
be familiar to you already or 
they might not work on your 
particular machine, but I am 
sure they will be useful to 
someone! 

Do you want to stop people 
from listing your programs? 
The following in line 1 should do 
the trick. 

POKE &H8002.255 
POKE &H8003.255 

The screen can in fact be 
turned on and off under soft- 
ware control: 

VDP(1 )= VDP(1 ) AND 1 91 
switches it off, and 
VDP(1 ) = VDP(1 ) OR 64turns it 
on again. 

Programs which contain 
LPRINT statements tend to 
hang up if the printer has not 
been switched on in advance. 
The following line will cure the 
problem. 

IFINP(&H90) =255THEN 
PRINT“Printernotconnected! 
Switch on and type RUN 
< RETU RN > to continue”: 
STOP 

The following routine will give 
a screendump at any time “p” is 
typed during a BASIC program. 
60000 ON INTERVAL= 1 00 
GOSUB 60020 
60010 INTERVALON: GOTO 
(start of program) 

60020 IF INKEY$ = “p”THEN 
60030 ELSE RETURN 
60030 FORN =0TO959: 
LPRINT CHR$ 
(VPEEK(N));: 

M=M+1 : 

IFM<40THENNEXT 

ELSEM=0: 

LPRINT.NEXT. 

If you have a disk system you 
will be aware that the computer 


reserves some RAM for the 
disk operating system’s use, 
enough in fact for two disk 
drives. It does this because it 
must be able to remember the 
files and their addresses. 

If you have a BASIC program 
and wish to stop the disk 
system from grabbing this RAM 
you can do so by keeping the 
SHIFT key depressed while 
you power up the computer. 
Note how the message 24,456 
bytes free changes to 28,81 5. 

You will now have additional 
free memory enough to run 
cassette programs which need 
the extra bytes, but you will not 
be able to run any disks. This 
trick will also be useful if you 
have a disk system and wish to 
simulate a cassette system 
while developing programs. 

In some programs you may 
encounter a disk-related error 
message such as DISK FULL 
which causes the program to 
hang up. Under these circumst- 
ances typing CLOSE, followed 
by RETURN often does the 
trick. 

Finally, here is a very neat 
automatic disk menu program 
which will boot up by itself. It will 
run any BASIC program and 
should be saved under the 
name AUTOEXEC.BAS. 

1 00 R EM automatic program 

110CLS 

120 WIDTH 38 

1 30 P R I NT “Contents of this 

disc” 

1 40 PRINT STRING$(38,”-”) 
150 FILES 

1 60 PRINT STRING$(38,”-”) 

1 70 PRINT“Sparecapacity: 
“;DSKF(0);”Kb” 

180 PRINT 

1 90 1 NPUT “Which program", 
P$ 

200 RUN P$ 

210END 

There are two MSX bulletin 
boards in Holland: 

Filotel . . . 0103150-145174 
MT-Tel . . . 0103178-156100 
There is a handy library of free 
programs to download on MT- 
Tel. Casual visitors should en- 
ter user number 222222 and 
password 2222. You can regis- 
ter on-line to get your own 
personal codes. 

Andy Emmerson 





Here’s your chance to have a say. 
Have you been let down by a 
supplier lately? Or pleasantly sur- 
prised by the service you’ve re- 
ceived? Or perhaps you’re just 
plain stuck on level 1,001 of your 
favourite arcade action mega- 
game? 

Whether it’s a word of praise, a 
moan, programming tips or a word 
of advice, we want to hear from you. 
It’s your page, so put pen to paper — 
now. 


Reset risk 

I would like to point out that 
Brian Scott’s advice about a 
reset switch for the MLF-80 
involves risky procedure and 
also invalidates the guarantee. 

I also had to have repairs 
made to my power on/off switch 
and my method of resetting the 
machine involves a switch con- 
necting the two rightmost pins 
on any joystick port. This 
method seems to work as long 
as the switch is pressed down 
for more than two seconds. 

Is there any chance that you 
could include machine code 
game listings? This would 
make entering listings easier 
and a lot more interesting. 

Paul Kinsella 

Newtown 

Eire 

We can’t really see how 
machine-code games list- 
ings would be easier to enter. 
Even fully-documented 
assembly listings are a lot 
harder to follow than Basic, 
and for a given program they 
would be so much longer 
than Basic listings that we 
could only get one or two i nto 
each issue. 

Considering that lots of 
readers don’t have assemb- 
ler/editor/debugger software 
we might be reduced to Basic 
hex loaders and reams of hex 
to type in. The debugging 
would be horrifying — one 
mistake and the whole 
machine could crash, giving 
you no idea of where the error 
lay. There’s also the fact that 
999 out of every thousand 
programs sent in are Basic. 

. . . and more 

With reference to the reset key 
for Mitsubishi’s MLF-80 by 
Brian Scott of Aberdeenshire, I 


feel I must warn you that this 
modification should not be car- 
ried out. Scott suggests that 
you connect a switch pin 28 of 
the HN613256P chip to earth. 

Since all Z80 micro-proces- 
sors have a reset pin, I am 
surprised that using that wasn’t 
suggested. Pin 26 (RESET) of 
the Z80 has two inverter/buffer 
stages plus a resistor and 
capacitor connected to it. 
These form the power-on reset 
circuit found on all MSX compu- 
ters. If a push-to-make switch is 
connected to the circuit and 


earth, this would make a manu- 
al reset. See diagram. 

Mr S Ellerker 
Croydon 

More switch 
difficulties 

I read Brian Scott’s letter about 
the reset key for MLF-80 with 
interest. The power switch 
failed on my MLF-80 after 14 
months of use and when I had to 
buy a new switch, the dealer 
informed me that the power 


switch on his MLF-80 had also 
recently failed. 

It appears that there may be a 
design fault here and I would be 
interested to hear Mitsubishi’s 
comments on this. I look for- 
ward to more coverage of 
serious applications in future 
issues of MSX Computing. I 
would also like to hear from the 
MSX Working Party about how 
they intend to keep the MSX 
concept alive and kicking in the 
UK in the face of competition 
from companies like Amstrad. 

As a user of Tasword, I am 
now used to seeing 64 charac- 
ters per line on screen. Is there 
any chance of a future feature 
on how to achieve this for 
normal programming and for 
use with programs such as 
spreadsheets? 

J C Brooks 
Forest Row 
Sussex 

We have a utility program 
scheduled for the next issue 
which gives a very good 64 
column display, but this 
effect can only be achieved 
within your own programs. 
Commercial software usual- 
ly defaults to 40 columns, 
even on a machine like the 
Spectravideo X’Press, which 
has an 80 column option 
implemented in hardware. 
Incidentally, the switch went 
on our MLF-80 too. 

Recommended 

I recently bought an MLF-80 for 
my grandchildren and your 
magazine is useful as it helps 
me avoid awkward questions. 
Brian Scott suggests a reset 
switch across pin 28 of 
HN613256P and deck. This 
chip is a 32 Kb ROM, of which 
pin 28 is VCC (+5v). Surely a 
dead short across the power 
supply would sooner or later be 
disastrous? 

The reset on the Z80 CPU 
chip is pin 26 and a switch from 
there to earth, say pin 29, via a 
47 ohms resistor will force the 
program counter to zero and 
initialise the CPU. 

This would perform the fol- 
lowing operations: disable the 
interrupt enable flip flop, set 
Register 1 to = 00H, set 
Register R to = 00H, set 
interrupt mode = 0. 

During reset time, address 
and data busses are disabled 
and all control output signals 





MLF-80 power switch problems 


become inactive — in other 
words, a cold reset. 

Perhaps some bright spark 
might pick up the RESET 
connection from the cartridge 
port — if not too busy chasing 
disembodied legs . . . 

I enjoy reading your maga- 
zine — after Commodore any- 
thing makes light reading. 

Perhaps you, might find 
room in your pages for connec- 
tor pin-outs? If you haven’t 
come across them yet, I refer 
you to Electronics and Comput- 
ing, September 1984. 

James F Fowkes F. I Diag. E 

Kings College 

London 

Technical 

enthusiast 

Like so many potential compu- 
ter users, I was captured by 
computing as a consequence 
of the recent price-cutting war. 

My first computer had too 
little memory, but when MSX 
came into existence, I felt the 
Sony Hit Bit had a lot going for it 
including a reasonable price 
tag (under £100), a 29K user 
memory and an attractive black 
casing. 

Computers have a great role 
to play in this new world and we 
have only just begun to scratch 
the surface of the potential of 
these machines. 

The price cutting policies of 
MSX companies have given 
the ordinary man or woman the 
chance to get over what I call 
techno-fear, a psychological 
fear of anything technical, and 
given them the opportunity to 
learn about something only a 
few could afford until now. 

A computer is not a God and 
neither is programming a reli- 
gion — but they are the future. 
When we get our act together 


and really start using compu- 
ters the way they can be used, 
then the stars will not be the 
limit. 

Andy Wilkinson 
Lytham St Annes 
Lancashire 

Game loading 
commands 

I have just bought Molecule- 
man by Mastertronic and I am 
having problems loading the 
game. 

The loading instructions say 
LOAD“CAS”,R, but they don’t 
work. I have tried all the com- 
mands that I know such as 
BLOAD“CAS’’,r, CLOAD and 
LOAD‘ , MOLECULEMAN,r, but 
nothing seems to work. 

This is the second tape from 
Mastertronic that has left me 
high and dry with the game 
loading commands. Can you 
help me? 

W Barker 
Hartlepool 

The loading instructions do 
indeed say LOAD“CAS”,R. 
What they should say is 
LOAD“CAS:”,R. The colon is 
the offending omission. 

Tasword tip 

In the October/November issue 
of MSX Computing, I note your 
reference to Tasword and the 
difficulty you had loading the 
program. I’ve experienced ex- 
actly the same problems. 

I contacted Tasman House 
and someone advised me to 
type in GOTO 30 and press 
return. He also said that the 
problem arose with some MSX 
machines. 

Following his instructions I 
loaded Tasword again and 
when SYNTAX ERROR IN 210 


came up, I typed GOTO 30 and 
the following message 
appeared on screen: LOAD- 
ING MACHINE CODE 
PLEASE WAIT. - 
The program did eventually 
load although I had to load it 
four or five times before the 
problem suddenly righted itself 
and since then I have had no 
further problems with Tasword 
I was intrigued to see a 
screen from MST-Calc in the 
same issue on page 19 as I 
have used the program quite a 
bit and have never seen that 
screen before. The manual 
doesn’tmentioniteither. Isyour 
copy a different version or am I 
doing something wrong? 
Gerald Cawthorn 
Bingley 

You could say it’s a different 
version — in fact it’s a picture 
of a different program which 
accidently got into the wrong 
file. Oops! 

Magazine 

ambitions 

Could you please tell me what 
qualifications I need to become 
a software reviewer (no, it’s not 
a joke!), because I am very 
interested in becoming one 
later on in life — hopefully with 
your magazine. 

James Garnett 
Felixstowe 

No formal qualifications are 
required — just an ability to 
do the job well, and do it 
reliably. If you have ambi- 
tions towards full-time 
magazine work you need an 
aptitude for lots of other 
skills as well. There’s really 
no such thing as a full-time 
software reviewer, even 
among the freelance journal- 
ists who write most of our 
reviews. Everyone does 
other jobs as well. 

Magazine journalism can 
be a fascinating life, and if 
you have knowledge of a 
specialised area such as 
computers or hi-fi, that can 
provide a way in. If you are 
seriously interested in jour- 
nalism as a career, you 
should investigate some of 
the polytechnic courses in 
periodical journalism nowon 
offer, as these give a good 
grounding in the technical 


aspects of magazine produc- 
tion, interviewing techni- 
ques and the like. 

Assemblers 

Please could you recommend a 
good cassette-based assemb- 
ler/disassembler/editor? How 
much would it cost and where 
could I obtain it? 

Paul Measday 
Greatstone 

Hisoft Devpac, £1 9.95, (0525) 
718181, or Zen from Kuma, 
£14.95, (07357) 4335, would 
probably fit your needs. 

Disk decision 

I have recently purchased a 
Sanyo MPC-100 and wish to 
take advantage of the software 
services offered by the Public 
Domain Software Interest 
Group. 

I need your advice on the 
availability of a suitable disk 
drive which can use the CP/M 
and MSX-DOS operating sys- 
tems. Would it be possible to 
use both disk operating sys- 
tems on the one disk drive and if 
so, where can I buy the system 
disks and a suitable disk drive. 

In the August/September 
issue, Alan Wood mentioned in 
his article that the CP/M and 
MSX-DOS systems come pre- 
packed with a complete disk 
system. Does this mean that as 
an MSX user I will be forced to 
buy two separate disk systems 
just to gain possession of CP/M 
and MSX-DOS? 

I can barely afford one drive 
at the moment. Please put me 
out of my m isery and offer some 
of your advice. 

Kevin Maynagh 
Kirkonnel 
Scotland 

Good news and bad. You can 
run CP/M or MSX-DOS using 
the same disk drive. Howev- 
er, because of the way CP/M 
is written you need an 80 
column display. Fine for 
MSX-2 and X’Press owners, 
not so good for the rest of us. 

X’Press buyers are doubly 
fortunate in that they can get 
CP/M and MSX-DOS with 
their machine, along with a 
fine collection of other soft- 
ware including Wordstar. 
Otherwise, the only source 
we know of at present is 
Hisoft. (0525) 718181. 



A- sf 


• | / /t 1 


e <^r^ 9 ° >Z6> TM5l 






-\,-\( KQsOf 


AACKOTEXT IDS (CASS & DISC) 
AACKOBASE IDS (CASS & DISC) 
WORD SIORE/MASTERVOICE 

MUSIX 

ULTRA CHESS 
FLIGHT DECK 
north SEA HELICOPTER 
CONFUSED 


E39 95 
£39 95 
E5 95 
£749 
E5 49 
£8.39 
E8 39 
E8 95 


A & F 


CHUCKIE EGG 


0 48 


KONAMI 


JAILBREAK £14.50 

YIE AR KUNG FU I |CART| £i4 50 

YIE AR KUNG FU 2 |CART| £14 50 

HYPER SPORTS I |CART| £14 50 

HYPER SPORTS 2 |CART| £14 50 


SPECIAL 
OFFER 


% 


ANY ONE ® Cl 2.9s 
ANY TWOfOr 09.99 
‘ALL THREE for C29.S0 

TRACK • FIELD 1 KONAMI 

TRACK ft FIELD 2.......... KONAMI 

HYPER SHOT ................KONAMI 

KONAMI GOLF |CART| £14 50 

KONAMI TENNIS (CART) £14 50 

HYPER RALLY (CART) £14 50 

KONAMI SOCCER |CART| £|4 50 

KONAMI PING PONG |CART| £14 50 

ATHLETIC LAND (CART) £14 50 

ANTARTIC ADVENTURE..|CART| £14 .50 

ROAD FIGHTER |CART| £14 50 

CIRCUS CHARLIE (CART) £14 50 

COMIC BAKERY |CART| £14 50 

KONAMI BOXING |CART| £14 50 

KINGS VALLEY ICART| £14 50 

MOPIRANGER |CART| £14 50 

SKY JAGUAR |CART| .....£ 14 50 

TIME PILOT ICART) £14 50 

MONKEY ACADEMY (CART | £14 50 

SUPER COBRA (CART | £14 50 

HYPER SPORT 3 |CART| £14 50 

HYPER SHOT U4 50 

KNIGHTMARE ICARTJ £14 50 

BILLIARDS ICART) £14 50 

NEMESIS *£14.50 

GOONIK £14.50 

GREEN BERET £|4.50 


ALLIGATA 


CONTRACT BRIDGE £7 25 

BLAGGER £5.95 

DISC WARRIOR £299 

KNOCKOUT £5.95 


ANIROG 


SLAPSHOT £5 95 

737 FLIGHT PATH £5.95 

JUMP JET £5 95 


OUICKSILVA 


BOOGA-BOO £4.99 

THE SNOWMAN £*-99 


ACTIVISION 


RIVER RAID £8.95 

HERO £8.95 

PITFALL 1 1 £8.95 

BEAMRIDER £7.99 

MASTER OF LAMPS £7.99 


ARTIC 


MR WONGS LOOPY LAUNDRY £5.95 

MUTANT MONTY £5.95 


BUBBLf BUS 


HUSTLER 

BOARDELLO 

£299 

£5.45 

ft • f'\| i T - f * r-vft a a T f 

I iiJV/IPI JThPM A 1 

V V /V l| III! IXIvl^'ll 

XJ 

WORD PROCESSOR (CART): 

£34 25 

CARDS (CARr) 

.... £3425 

MAILSHOT (CART) 

... £63 49 

CASH ACCOUNTS (CART) 

£85 99* 

SPREADSHEET (CART) 

£34 25 

COMMUN!CATlONS(CART;| . 

£34 25 

THE SECRETARY (CART) 

£85.99 

COMMUNICATIONS 4 RS232 (CART) 

£85 99 

SECRETARY 4 RS232 (CART) 

£179 99 


£6.99 



KUMA HARDWARE 

RS232C INTERFACE BOARO :mML £79.951 

PARALLEL INTERFACE BOARD .*5940. £49.95 



Cl ASSIC 


CHEETAH 

JOYSTICK 


, n 




KICK IT 
SPACE BUSTERS 
SPACE RESCUE 
MAC ATTACK 
HOPPER 
SENTIPEDE 
BOOM 
OH SHITI 
SMACK SHACKER 
MOON RIDER 
PANEL PANIC 
ROBOT WARS 
MAZES UNUMITED 
PANIQUE 
SNAKE IT 
ICE 


WIGMORE 
MOUSE 

£59.95 


£2.99 each 

OR 

THREE FOR 

£7.77 


PRICE PROMISE 

K in this Magazine you find a product 
advertised at a lower priC8 we will match 
their price and deduct a further 20p. Just 
include a copy of their Ad when replying. 
(This does not apply where companies 
charge for minimum orders or postage or do 
not have products in stock.) 


Game Controller 
not Joystick 



JOYSTICK 

rrfcsa, 
£9.99 


KUMA BOOKS 

Starting Machine Code on the MSX £7.55 

Behind the Screens of the MSX .TfMfj, £9-55 

Ideas for the MSX £6.55 

Starting with the MSX £5.55 

The MSX Red Book rfftSi f 9.55 

Pio g t ann ii g in MSX Basic itWte. £7.55 


KONAMI 
HYPERSHOT 

£9.95 



PROBLEMS 
LOADING? 

Use one of our AZIMUTH 
Alignment Tapes 

Robcom £4.95 


me mic 


CHACK N POP. . 

THE WRECK 

BARNSTORMER 

MT BASE 

SHARK HUNTER 

CHORO O 

BUZZ OFF 

XYZOLOG 


..£6.95 
£11.95 
. £7.50 
£37 95 

£6.95 

..£6.95 

..£5.95 

..£6.50 


H 




LIVEWIRE 


International Karate £7,95 


GREMLIN 


WAY OF THE TIGER. 
BOUNDER 

CLASSICS 

VALKYR 

JACK THE NIPPER 


£7.25 

£6.99 

£7.95 

£6.99 

£6.99 



i \ i 

iA 


MRCHING (CART) 

STEP UP (CART) 

ROLLERBALL (CART) 

SUPER BILLIARDS (CART) 

HOLE IN ONE (CART) 

SUPER SNAKE (CART) 

EDDY II (CART) 

MUE (CART) 

TRACKER BALL (incl MP606C or MP607C) 


£12 49 
£12 49 
£l2 49 
£12 49 
£12 49 
£12 49 
£24 95 
£24 95 
£79 95 


KUMA 


SUPER CHESS 

NINJA 

KUBUS : 

FRUITY FRANK 

SHNAX 

MUSIC MAESTRO 

STOP THE EXPRESS 

SPOOKS & LADDERS 

BUSTER BLOCK 

ZIPPER 

STAR AVENGER 

HYPER VIPER 

ERIC & FLOATERS 

WDPRO 

WDPRO DISC 

DRILLER TANKS 

BINARY LAND 

FIRE RESCUE 

DOG FIGHTER 

COCO IN THE CASTLE 

CRIBBAGE 

HOLDFAST 

MEAN STREETS 

HOME BUDGET 

ZEN M/C CODE 

ZEN M/C CODE DISC 

LOGO 

COLOUR FANTASIA 

DATABASE 

DATABASE DISC 

SPREADSHEET 

COMMUNICATIONS 

KUMA FORTH 

GALAXIA 

SHADOW OF THE BEAR 

DEATH VALLEY GOLD RUSH 

HUNTER KILLER 

MIC CODE TUTOR 

GALACTIC MERCENARIES 

BRIDGE 

ACROPOLIS i 

PELMANfSM 

DARKWOOD MANOR 

NORTH SEA 

BULLION ADVENTURE 


£7 50 
£5 50 
£5 50 
£5 50 
£550 
£7 25 
£5,50 
£5 50 
£595 
£3 99 
£695 
£649 
£4 99 
£19 95 
£29 95 
£6 95 
£6 95 
£6 49 
£5 49 
£5 49 
£4 99 
£4 99 

£5 49 
£10 95 
£14 95 
£29 95 
£14 50 
£6 99 

£14 50 
£29 95 
£19 95 
£14 50 
£29 95 
£5 49 
£6 49 
£6 49 

£6 49 
£9 95 

£6 49 
£6 95 
£6 95 
. £5.50 
£7.25 


£7.25 


KNIGHT'? 



MONOPOLY 

SCRABBLE 

CLUEDO 


£795 
£7 95 
£7 95 


SUSS )Atlth "* 


\ 


ALPHA BLASTER ) BARGAIN £595 


1 07 HI ORIEN 


I f VI I <; 


MICROTEK NIX 


HOT SHOT Special Offer 

GENOGRAMS CSrOa, ALL THREE 

DOMINOES TS42. ONLY £9 99 

NEW Artworker £5.49 


MlfWORSGI r 


STAR SEEKER £7.95 

737 FLIGHT SIMUL £7.25 

SPITFIRE 40 £7.95 


MART T CH 


EDDIE KIDD JUMP £5 95 

BRIAN JACKS £5.95 

ZOIDS £6.50 

SAMANTHA FOX STRIP POKER £6.95 

GEOFF CAPES STRONG MAN £5.95 


MAS TER TRONIC 


KNIGHTTYME 
MOLECULE MAN 


£209 

£109 


MR MIC Rc ) 


CRAZY GOLF 

CUBIT 

HUMPHREY ... 

MAYHEM 

ZAKILWOOD 


ORRHI IJS 


* 

* 


0OULDERDASH £4.99 

MSX BOARDGAMES £4.99 

EUDON £6.50 

JOY CARD £7.25 

BOULDERDASH II £7.95 

SPYVSPXII £7.95 


CDS 


CASTLE BLACKSTAR £5,75 

STEVE DAVIS SNOOKER £7.49 

ICE KING £5.75 


VS GOLD 


WINTER GAMES £7.95 

DOORS OF DOOM |DISK| £12.95 

•THE DAM8USTERS £7.95 

(SPY £2.99 

GROGS REVENGE £7 99 

•PLEASE CONTACT TO CHECK AVAILABILITY 


Send to FREEPOST Richard Reeves Ltd w 

57 Geld St~ Northampton, NN1 1BR. CALLERS WELCOME 

or Telephone: (0604) 33578 for 
Access/Bardaycard orders only. 



Signed 


Name 


Address 


Title 

Title 


Title 

Tel 


Title 


I enclose cheque/PO for £ 


TOSHIBA «*-•» 
JOYSTICK 


£2 49 
£249 
£2.49 
.£2 49 
£2.49 


rt*#i£8.95 




EXPLODE ATOMS/ VIPER £4.95 

SMASH OUT/OTHELLO £4.95 

BUDGET ACCOUNTS £12 50 

STOCK CONTROL £12 50 


SPECIAL OPERATIONS £5.95 

PANZER ATTACK £5 95 


WORM IN PARADISE £7.25 

COLOSSAL ADVENTURE £7.25 

DUNGEON ADVENTURE £7.25 

RETURN TO EDEN £7.25 

SNOWBALL £7.25 

LORDS OF TIME. £7.25 

ADVENTURE QUEST £7.25 

EMERALD ISLE £5.50 

RED MOON £5.50 

PRICE OF MAGlK £7.25 


ii 


payable to Richard Reeves Ltd. 

Annrno m r»oc Ann fl AA D0.D DAVIICMT IM f'» CTCDI IM/2 DMI V (MSX/12/B6 


PEAK SOFT 


THE BOSS £5.50 


SOFT CAT 


FUN WORDS 

LETS GO MSX 



£7.25 
£7.25 

f) j 


f OR 1 

VI L 

ISIC 


ODYSSEY-K MUSIWRIIOR £10 99 

PSG MUSIWRITER (CART). £22.99 


TERMINAL 


LAZY JONES £4.99 


HI SOFT 


OEVPAC £17.25 

PASCAL £25.95 


PSS 


BATTLE FOR MIDWAY £7.25 

LES FLICS £3 99 

MAXIMA £3.99 

TIME BANDITS £5 50 

CHAMP M/C TUTOR .,£2 49 

VACUUMANIA £2.49 

MACADAM BUMPER £6 95 


SOI I PRO J 


MANIC MINER £5 95 

JET SET WILLY £5 95 

HARVEY SMITH £5 95 


Bf AU JOl I Y 


HITS 6 £5.50 

HITS 6 II £5.50 


f ASM AN 


T AS WORD UK 


£995 


| Ul TIMA.lt 


NIGHTSHADE 

£7.25 

GUN FRIGHT 

£7 25 

KNIGHT LORE 

£7.25 

ALIEN EIGHT 

£7.25 

VIRGIN 

SORCERY 

£695 

MSX BOOKS 

I PROGRAMMERS GUIDE 

..... £7.95 

INTRO TO ASSY 

LANGUAGE & M/CODE 

£8.95 

MSX BASIC REVEALED 

£6.95 

MSX EXPOSED 

£7.95 

MSX GAMES BOOK 

... £6.95 

MSX PROGRAMMING GUIDE ... 

£14.95 

STARTING BASIC...... ........... ....... 

£5.95 


£40.00 ORDERS OR OVER 

(NOT INCLUDING HARDWARE) 

choose any game value 
£4.00 or less (or deduct 
£4.00 from cost if higher 
value game preferred). 


IMMEDIATE DESPATCH 

of ALL 

CREDIT CARD ORDERS 
WHERE POSSIBLE 

— any out of stock Item 
will be forwarded as soon 
as we obtain fresh supplies 
phone orders — 9 am- 
5.30 pm If you would like 
conf Irmatlon that the 
Item(s) you require are 
currently In stock or use 
our 24 HOUR ACCESS/VISA 












































































Exploding 

computing 

Help! Yesterday I inadvertently 
withdrew and reconnected the 
disk drive attached to my Sony 
Hit Bit without first switching it 
off. The result is of course a 
mess. Can you tell me the name 
of any qualified and reliable firm 
who can repair it? Do you think I 
have done any terrible damage 
to my computer? 

Lastly can you suggest a 
method I can use to save data 
from my Personal Data Bank to 
disk. According to the operating 
instructions, this can be done, 
but no further reference is 
made except for tape or car- 
tridge. 

L C Butt 

Weston-Super-Mare 

Avon 

T ricky. There are a number of 
computer repair outfits 
around, but they all seem to 
restrict themselves to Com- 
modore, Sinclair, Amstrad 
and Acorn. If any readers can 
recommend repair firms, 
we’ll pass on the info. If it’s 
any consolation, the damage 
is likely to be limited to a few 
chip replacements. 



application 

You state in the October/ 
November issue (on page 3) 
that your readers fall into two 
main categories. Iconsiderthat 
these two should be subdivided 
into a further two — those who 
use MSX computers as a 
games machine and those who 
putthem to small business use. 

Reviews of games software 
are very useful and interesting, 
but reviews of business soft- 
ware wou Id also be of interest to 
people like myself. 

Articles relating to printers 
have been fairly prevalent in 
recent MSX Computing issues. 
As a computer novice, I pur- 
chased a Brother M-1009 for 
about £150 and was very 
pleased with it. 

In future I hope you include 
more utility programs instead of 
games in your listings pages as 
I consider the MSX a useful tool 
in the business world. 

David Woodhams 
Guildford 



Hit-Bit disk system — repair shop needed 


Joysticks 



Atari joysticks do work after all 


I noted in the letters page of the 
October/November issue that 
“Disgruntled” of Lancashire 
couldn’t get any joysticks to 
work with his MSX. 

I use a standard Atari joystick 
on my Mitsubishi and also a 
Pointer Master from my Com- 
modore 64 and both work 
perfectly. They also work on my 
friend’s T oshiba. From the way 
“Disgruntled” calls everything 
rubbish, I suspect that it’s not 
the equipment, but the man 
that’s rubbish. 

H Fisher 

Dewsbury 

Yorkshire 

MSX 

library 

I agree with all the complaints 
about the shortage of MSX 
software and I must agree that it 
is difficult to get hold of in the 
usual retail outlets. 

There is another way of 
obtaining MSX software — hire 
it. The Midlands Computer 
Library, based in Worcester, 
hires out software from 75p to 
£2.50 per week. T o get its MSX 
software catalogue, send £1 
and state clearly that you have 
an MSX computer. 

Apart from the obvious 
advantage of hiring (it’s less 
expensive), it also enables 
potential purchasers to test- 
drive programs. The address is 
Midland Computer Library, 28 
College Street, Worcester 
WR1 2LS. Tel: (0905) 611072. 
Colin Hunter 
Salisbury 
Wiltshire 







THE 


No 1 



TAVISTOCK 


CENTRE 


I 

vl 



LTD 


SEND NOW FOR YOUR FREE 
SOFTWARE LIST 


THIS IS ONLY A SMALL 
SELECTION OF OUR SOFTWARE 


2 1 The Broadway 

Bedford MK40 2TL 

Telephone: 

BEDFORD 
(0234) 56323/4 


KONAMI CARTRIDGES 


Green Beret £14.95 

Jail Break £14.95 

Nemesis (new) £14.95 

The Goonies (new) £14.95 

Knightmare £14.95 

Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 £14.95 

Yie ArKung Fu 1 £14.95 

Hyper Sports 3 £14.95 

Hyper Sports 2 £14.95 

Hyper Sports 1 £14.95 

Roadfighter £14.95 

Hyper Rally £14.95 

Soccer £14.95 

Boxing £14.95 

Kings Valley £14.95 

Sky Jaguer £14.95 

Comic Bakery £14.95 

Super Cobra £14.95 

Time Pilot £14.95 

Ping Pong £14.95 

Billiards £14.95 

Golf £14.95 

Athletic Land £14.95 

Antarctic Adventure £14.95 

Tennis £14.95 

Track And Field 1 £11.95 

Track And Field 2 £11.95 

Circus Charlie £11.95 

Monkey Academy £11 .95 

Mopiranger £11.95 


TOSHIBA PERIPHERALS 



HX-R700 RS232 

£99.95 

HX-E600 2 Cart Slot 

. £29.95 

HX-C810 Datarecorder 

£24.95 

HX-J400 Joystick 

. . £9.95 

HX-S665 Wordpro 

. £49.95 

HX-P101 Disc Drive.... 

£299.95 

JVC PERIPHERALS 

HC-J61 5 Joystick 

..£12.95 

HC-R105 Datarecorder 

£89.95 

HC-F303 Disc Drive .... 
Midi Interface 

£299.95 

inc Software 

£169.95 

SANYO PERIPHERALS 

MLP-001 Light Pen 

. £89.95 

DR-202 Datarecorder... 

..£44.95 

MJY-002 Joystick 

£12.95 

COMPUTERS 

Toshiba HX-22 

£145.00 

JVC HC-7GB 

. £99.95 

PRINTERS 

Toshiba HX-P550 

£170.00 

Brother Ml 009 

£169.95 

Panasonic KY-P1 091 .. 

£299.95 

ACCESSORIES 

HXP550 Printer Ribbon 

...£7.95 

Modem 

£225.00 

Datarecorder 

.£24.95 

Wigmore Mouse 

..£69.95 

Plotter Pens Instock.... 

...£6.95 

MONITORS 


Philips BM7522 Amber £89.95 

Philips Colour £219.95 

Sanyo CTP-3143 

Colour £189.95 

Sony KX 14CP1 Colour £399.95 


SONY SOFTWARE 

Crazy Train 

£17.95 

Mouseo 

£17.95 

Battlecross 

£17.95 

Doroden 

£17.95 

Juno Firs 

£17.95 

Homewriter 

£24.95 



MSX BOOKS 


Starting with the MSX £5.95 

Starting Machine Code with 

MSX £7.95 

MSX Exposed £6.95 

MSX Starting Basic £6.95 

Getting More from MSX ..£7.95 
Getting the Best from Your MSX 

£2.95 


MSX SOFTWARE 


Eggy £8.95 

Confuzed £8.95 

Moonrider £2.95 


Robot Wars £2.95 

Ice £2.95 

Smack Wacker £2.95 

Panel Panic £2.95 

Mazes Unlimited £2.95 

Snake It £2.95 

Spacebusters £2.95 

Jewels of Darkness £14.95 

Kingsize £9.95 

Syberun £9.95 

Footballer of the Year £7.95 

Veracruz £9.95 

Winter Games £9.95 

Speed King £1.99 

Astro Plummer £1.99 

Diamond Mine 2 £1.99 

Darts £1.99 

M-Droids £1.99 

Silicon Dreams £14.95 

Adrian Mole £9.95 

Front Line £5.95 

Winter Olympics £7.95 

MSX Extra £9.95 

Vestron £1.99 

Foot Volley £1.99 

Bounder £8.95 

Harvey Smith £7.95 

Reflexes £9.95 

World Cup Soccer £9.95 

MSX Classics £9.95 

The Inheritance £9.95 




4 


Toshiba 
Joystick 
with all 
orders over 

£ 45.00 

































THE 
















TAVISTOCK 




V 



No 1 



LID 


2 1 The Broadway 


CENTRE 


Bedford MK40 2TL FREE POSTAGE AND 


Telephone: 


PACKING 


* 


BEDFORD 


SAME DAY DESPATCH 


(0234) 56323/4 


WITHIN GREAT BRITAIN 


MSX SOFTWARE 


International Karate £7.95 

Grogs Revenge £6.95 

Mandragore £14.95 

Ice King £6.95 

Steve Davis Snooker £8.95 

Castle Blackstar £6.95 

Boulderdash £6.95 

Flight Deck £9.95 

North Sea Helicopter £9.95 

Scentipede £2.95 

Boom £2.95 

Hopper £2.95 

Oh No £2.95 

Space Rescue £2.95 

Mac Attack £2.95 

Musix £7.95 

Mastervoice £7.95 

Heist £7.95 

Time Curb £8.95 

Oils Well £7.95 

Jet Bomber £6.95 

Chess Game £7.95 

Ghostbusters £11.00 

Decathlon £11.99 

Hero £11.99 

Master Of The Lamp £11 .99 

River Raid £11.99 

Blagger £7.00 

Contract Bridge £9.95 

3D Knockout £7.95 

Superbowl £2.99 

Lets Go MSX £9.95 

Flight Path 737 £8.95 

Jump Jet £9.95 

Slapshot £8.95 

Mr Wong £8.00 

Mutant Monty £6.95 

Computer Hits £6.95 

Hustler £2.99 

Turmoil £2.95 

Journey/Centre £2.95 

Minder £9.95 

A View To A Kill £10.99 



MSX SOFTWARE 

Hi 

Knightyme 

Hobbit 

.... £2.99 
£9.95 

Lemans 

£3.99 

Hobbit Book 

£4.95 

The Wreck (ROM) 

£9.95 

Classic Adventure.... 

£6.95 

Buzz Off 

£1.99 

Star Seeker 

£9.95 

Barnstormer 

£3.99 

Zakil Wood 

£7.95 

Sweet Acorn 

£3.99 

Crazy Golf 

..... £7.95 

XYZolog 

£3.99 

Hunchback ........... 

.... £6.90 

MSX Artist 

£3.99 

Boulderdash 

£6.95 

Way Of The Tiger 

£9.95 

Board Games 

£4.95 

Bounder 

£8.95 

Elidon 

£8.95 

Valkyr 

£8.95 

The Boss 

£6.95 

Eric And The Floaters 

£5.95 

Les Flics 

£7.95 

Coco In The Castle 

£6.95 

Maxima 

£3.50 

Zipper 

£3.95 

Vacumania 

£3.50 

Stop The Express 

£6.95 

Macadam Bumper ... 
PSG Musicwriter 

£8.95 

....£24.95 


Sorcery £8.95 

Monopoly £9.95 

Scrabble £9.95 

Cluedo £9.95 

Breakout £1.99 

Checkmate £1.99 

Teach Yourself Basic £1.99 

MSX Text £49.95 

MSX Calc £49.95 

Cards £39.95 

The Secretary £99.95 

Home Budget £14.95 

Kuma Wdpro £29.95 



MSX SOFTWARE 


Jet Set Willy 

£4.00 

Jet Set Willy 2 

£7.95 

Manic Miner 

£7.95 

Lazy Jones 

£8.95 

Alien 8 

£9.95 

Gunfright 

£9.95 

Knight Lore 

£9.95 

Knight Shade 

£9.95 



r 


Dungeon Adventure £9.00 

Colossal Adventure £9.95 

The Price Is Magic £9.95 

Grid Trap £1.99 

Scramble £1.99 

Alphablaster £1.99 

Brian Jacks Challenge £7.95 

Zoids £8.95 

Samantha Fox £8.95 

Space Walk £1.99 

Chiller £1.99 

Finders Keepers £1.99 

Formula 1 £1.99 

Molecule Man £1.99 




SOFTWARE ORDER 


1 



~| 






t 

TOTAL £,, 

1 Ail prices include VAT and post and packing. All items incluae a full ye< 
Products are stocked and usually despatched within two day 
customers add £4 post and packing. Cheques with cheque card nu 
1 Order, etc., payable to TAVISTOCK HI-FI LTD. Telephone orders (Oi 
1 Please debit my Access/Barclaycard 

. Card Number 


1 

ar guarantee. I 
s. Overseas, 
mber, Postal 
>34) 56323. 

1 

•Signature | 

1 Name | 

[Address j 


1 MSX Comp Pec 86/ Jan ’87 I 

L 




5 ? 








v 




2 
1 Si 

U 



9 


9i 








MSX 
















Martin Banks dons his 

% 

Santa suit and selects 
some all-time classics 
for the festivities 


N ormally, I don’t 

take too kindly to 
having my sleep 
disturbed by unwarranted 
interventions, even by peo- 
ple I know, so when the 
esteemed editor of this au- 
gust organ telephoned me 
the other day, I took a dim 
view of things. 

But that was only at first, for 
he quickly managed to pacify 
my rising angst with a simple 
and magic word: Christmas. 
That’s what he said, just like 
that. My curiosity was aroused. 

With care he became more 
specific. No, he wasn’t actually 
offering me a Christmas pre- 
sent, and certainly notone now, 
that would be most unfair. 
Instead, he wanted me to look 
at some Christmas presents. 
“For me?” I enquired hopefully. 

The answer was disappoint- 
ing; well, for me it was, anyway. 
The presents weren’t for me, 
they were for you lot out there. 
Then again, they were only for 
you lot out there if someone 


was kind enough (or mug 
enough, it depends upon your 
point of view) to rush out and 
buy same for the festive period. 

What the man wanted me to 
do was examine some games 
programs, things that might 
make suitable presents for the 
vast armyof you outthere. This, 
it has to be said, was quite a 
brave thing to do, for your 
esteemed editor knows full well 
that I am not the world’s 
greatest lover of games soft- 
ware. But your editor is nothing 
if not perverse. “Go on, be rude 
if you want to,” he said. 

Now that is an offer one 
doesn’t get every day of the 
week, and I’m afraid it proved to 


be just too tempting. So, here 
we are, and you’ll have to put up 
with it. Games I was asked to 
look at, and my view of them is 
what you’re going to get. 

Those of you who have been 
following my recent exploits 
with an MSX computer, a tape 
recorder and a great deal of 
frustration will understand why I 
made an immediategrabforthe 
cartridge games. Those who 
haven’t been following prob- 
ably aren’t into self-pity 
anyway. 

Needless to say, when the 
bag of programs arrived, I 
made a beeline for the two 
games from Komani, not be- 
cause I am a great lover of 


them, but simply because they 
were cartridges. I know they’re 
more expensive to make and all 
that, but I’m lazy and cartridges 
are so much more convenient. 

First out of the bag was Golf, 
which by chance was the game 
I ended up liking best, though 
that pre-empts my story a bit. 
This game actually surprised 
me quite a bit, because I have 
never been one of the greatest 
lovers of golf itself, though I 
have understood the principles 
for some time. (There are some 
things I like, honest). 

Anyway, I banged in the 
cartridge and started to play. 
The game is really quite realis- 
tic for a two-dimensional repre- 
sentation of a three dimension- 
al event. It was also interesting 
to note that the player, or 
players when working it mob- 
handed, are women. Too much 
macho is bad for you, these 
days. 

It gives you all the expected 
playing options, together with a 
good bit of additional useful 



Ping-pong's disembodied hands 



« B 


V o u ir 
wh i oh 

? b o u e 

h • i^l 


on « 9r as t mound 

* ♦ • # f ♦ w M 1 1 r es 

• • b o -f w b u i n 9 9 r a 

n s # b m s to 90 on 
o k ♦ n only b y t hr b 


fc> r 


I * n d m a r k s 
P o j n t • d 


%j o 




o n 
t hr 


* S tBBP 

mount* i 


New graphics enhance the adventures 








Or try a relaxing game of Chess 


information, to make for an 
interesting nine-hole game of 
golf. Its one possible drawback 
over other golf games I have 
seen is that it only plays over the 
same nine holes, in the same 
order. The counter-argument 
to this is that most people will, in 
real life, predominantly play on 
the same course, and will get to 
know it well. 

I have to report this is so. I 
went from something horren- 
dous like 1 4 over par for nine 
holes, to a best of three under. 
Not bad, eh? 

You start by choosing the 
type of shot — straight, hook or 
slice, while the system tells you 
the distance to the hole. The 
graphics are very good, as with 
most Konami games I’ve seen, 
with a 3D view of the fairway, 
plus a plan view of the entire 
hole. This can be very useful, 
for a couple of holes are real 
devils, where you have to play 
to a small patch of ground 
surrounded by woods. 

Using either the control keys 
or the joystick, a cross-shaped 
cursor can be moved around 
the plan view to indicate the 
direction of the shot. There is 
also a small panel which shows 
what number hole is being 
played, whose shot it is, the par 
for the hole, and how many 
strokes they have taken so far. 
Also displayed are the wind 
direction and strength, which 
must be taken into considera- 
tion. 

The manual gives details of 
the distance that can be hit with 
any club, and the system shows 
how many metres are left to the 
pin. You select your club and 
use the sliding power meter to 
gauge the strength of the 
wallop you give the ball. 

And so you make a stately 
progress up the green to the 
pin. Alternatively, you can find 
yourself in the rough or out-of- 
bounds, both of which I 
achieved with startling regular- 
ity to begin with. 

As I have said, this is one 
game I actually got to like 
playing. It almost got me to the 
point of being just a bit in- 
terested in real golf, until I 
realised the game’s one fatal 
flaw. There is no nineteenth 


Confused? You will be . . . 


hole, and even if there was, 
two-dimensional graphical rep- 
resentation would somehow 
not seem to have the same 
promise of sensory pleasure. 
Ah well. 

So it was on to the next game, 
another Komani cartridge cal- 
led, with stunning originality, 
Ping Pong. Hands up anyone 
who can’t guess what this was 
about ... no sir, it was not 
about bells and smells. 

Yes, it was all about table 


tennis, which is another game 
that I am not totally struck by. 
Maybe it’s because it tends to 
remind me of cold and damp 
winter evenings spent as a 
callow youth down at the local 
youth club. It was either play 
table tennis, or watch others 
playing table tennis. Life was 
not too exciting in those days, I 
can tell you. 

Despite this latent prejudice, 
I decided to have a go. This was 
a game that was not so easy as 


Golf, mainly because it re- 
quired the learning of a particu- 
larense of timing sothatthe ball 
(pong?) could be hit. Again, this 
game had Komani’s generally 
excellent graphics. In this case 
however, the 2D display of a 3D 
event made it difficult for me to 
pick up a sense of where the 
ball actually was in relation to 
the bat. 

I n a word, I was always either 
too early, or too late. In both 
cases the result was the same: 
total ignominy for me and a 
rapid accumulation of points for 
the computer. One of the 
strangest things about this is 
also the most sensible, logical- 
ly. Unlike Komani’s version of 
ordinary tennis, where the ten- 
nis players can be seen in all 
their glory, having players in the 
ping-pong picture would only 
get in the way of seeing what 
was happening on the table. 

This means that the sensible 
alternative is taken. All that 
appears of each player is a 
disembodied hand. Using 
either the cursor keys or the 
joystick, this hand can be made 
to play either forehand or 
backhand, and hit the ball. This 
is the bit that I really couldn’t 
cope with. I just could not get 
the timing of this right with any 
degree of consistency. 

Needless to say, the compu- 
ter stomped all over me. The 
most points I scored in any 
game was three, and most of 
the ones I lost were given away 
by my inability to hitthedamned 
ball at all. Ironically, and indeed 
perversely, I found it easier to 
hit the ball on the harder levels. 
The game offers five different 
levels, and I found that on the 
toughest I could get some really 
worthwhile rallies going against 
the computer, which proved 
impossible with the lowest, 
easiest level. 

This must prove something, 
though I’m not sure what, 
especially as I never actually 
managed to win a single point in 
any game played at this level. 

A couple of points on Ping 
Pong that struck me about the 
graphics. Firstly the crowd, who 
are amazingly partisan, with 
one side cheering the computer 
and the other side supporting 
me (guess who had little to 







* t u r d y 
b o x * sr . 

+ r on * 

w ♦ * t . e 

W**t . V 

4 * n d m ct 




o l“» 
W h 

* JO 

x i 

O U 
4 b r> 
x t 


& t & 

t * 1 

end i 

« 4 ft r 

can 


and i r- o n 
1 i yht s hi 
id n o o M t 
r a * o u t b 

a a a a not: 


l n <& r c o n d 


l n a s* 
t o t- b a 
and 
ot i c a 


More of those Rainbird/Level 9 graphics 


do?). They were great, and I 
would swear that one looked 
just like a chimpanzee (make 
what you like of that). The other 
point is the other player whose 
hand, on winning a game, 
danced around making ‘V’ 
signs at me. I was most hurt. 

Next came the point I had 
feared, it was time to try some 
cassette-based games. Know- 
ing my luck things started out 
badly. Having had so much 
trouble with cassette loading in 
the past (see MSX Computing 
passim) Murphy’s law pre- 
dicted the same problems 
would arise again, and they did. 
This time, however, I found the 
tape recorder genuinely was 
broken, so after a quick 
change, we were successfully 
in business. 

First up was the Aacksoft 
game, Confused, which is 
probably an apt name for it. It is 
somewhat strange, though in 
the end highly entertaining. The 
object of the exercise is to 
match up one picture with 
another. It would have been 
better called Jigsaw as that is 
the basis. The screen has three 
main sections, one window has 
the source picture, another has 
a blank space into which bits of 
this picture can be placed, and 
the third has the bits of picture. 

Difficulty is varied by increas- 
ing or decreasing the number of 
picture pieces that have to be 
fitted together. This can vary 
from four to 1 2 pieces, some of 
which are the right way up and 
others inverted. 

Picking up these pieces and 
placing them in the window, 
either with the cursor keys or 
the joystick, sounds relatively 
easy, but it is made harder by 
the fact that the source picture 
is moving. This makes life much 
more interesting. 

The game can be played in 
non-competitive or competitive 
modes. With the latter, it means 
completing the picture in time to 
beat a descending score coun- 
ter; something I never man- 
aged to do. 

And do I move on to another 
Ackosoft game. Ultra Chess. 
I’m not too sure about this one, 
not because there was any- 
thing wrong with it that I could 
find, more because I’m so 
congenitally hopeless at chess 
that I’m the last person on earth 
to pass any valid opinion on it. 

Needless to say, the game 
just wiped me out everytime I 
looked at it, but then any chess 
board can do that, even without 
a second player. Simply by my 
looking at the pieces I can find 


myself in checkmate. Outside 
assistance was therefore re- 
cruited. 

Chess is a game mastered 
only by those of high intelli- 
gence and a keen tactical mind. 
It was obviously useless to call 
upon the opinion of any mem- 
ber of the MSX Computing 
staff, but Big ’Ed Craven did 
come up trumps by suggesting 
the services of my fellow lexical 
choreographer and com- 
munications buff Phil Roisky. 

This sterling fellow reported 
that the playing standard of 
Ultra Chess was gratifyingly 
high. Features which he sing- 
led out for praise included the 
ability to save partially-com- 
pleted games on cassette for 
later contemplation, and a prin- 
terlogging function which prints 
out a complete record of the 


moves in a game as they occur. 
A simplified copy of the board 
layout can also be dumped to 
the printer at any time. The 
impoverished Rotsky house- 
hold only runs to a black and 
white TV, so he also appreci- 
ated the ability to change all the 
on-screen colours and thus 
make the display more legible. 
The playing strength of the 
computer is adjusted by telling 
it how many seconds it is 
allowed to spend contemplat- 
ing each move. 

The only criticism I have 
about Ultra Chess is that it 
seems just a bit over-sold, 
especially in the futuristic 
graphics of the packaging. 

The last package your 
esteemed editor, ‘Biggies’ 
Craven, asked me to open was 
a compendium of classic 


adventures, Jewels of Darke- 
ness, from Level 9 and Firebird. 
This is, a pack of three casset- 
tes and a well-presented book. 

The three cassettes contain 
a trilogy of adventure games: 
Colossal Adventure, Adven- 
ture Quest, and Dungeon 
Adventure. Between them, 
there should be enough excite- 
ment to satisfy the needs of 
most people, especially those 
who haven’t tried entering the 
strange, alternative worlds of 
the adventure game before. 

These are well presented 
versions of the breed which 
have been updated by Level 9 
and Firebird. Not least in the 
updating is the graphics, a new 
addition to the original text- 
based game. These are really 
quite good, and give an added 
dimension to events by having 
such eerie things as mauve- 
coloured tree trunks. 

For one who has read and 
enjoyed Lord of the Rings 
several times, I sometimes find 
adventure games rather frus- 
trating, and I found these occa- 
sionally just a bit inconsistent. 
At one point for example, I was 
obviously going the wrong way, 
but found that every exit from 
the point I had reached seemed 
to lead back to where I had 
come from. 

The presentation of the 
games is excellent, however. 
They come with a really in- 
teresting guide book both to the 
games themselves and the 
ambienceof the idea. This book 
is much more than the usual 
documentation or instruction 
sheet, though all that sort of 
stuff is included. Its main differ- 
ence is the inclusion of a short 
novella, called The Darkness 
Rises, by Peter McBride. If 
nothing else, it makes good 
reading while loading. 

One minor point to bear in 
mind, of course, is that these 
games are intended to run on 
the MSX computer and, unfor- 
tunately, on a few examples of 
the breed that I have come 
across recently, a lack of effi- 
ciency in the keyboard area has 
been noticeable. It can be very 
frustating when you’re trying to 
play a text-oriented game and 
the keyboard (or bits of it) seem 
to refuse to acknowledge that 
you exist. 

So if you are a new-ish MSX 
owner in need of some classic 
games that won’t get boring for 
a long time, try leaving these 
pages on view around the 
house, with the relevant titles 
underlines in red. Your loved 
ones should get the message. 










First Choice for 



in Bucks & Herts 




Sanyo MPC-100 Computer 



Toshiba HX-F101 Disk Drive 



Toshiba HXP550 Printer 



Now in Stock 

Toshiba HX10 & HX22 Computers, HX-P550 Matrix Printer, 
HXF101 Disk Drive, HX-R700 Communication Interface, HXJ400 

Joystick 

Also in Stock 

Sanyo MPC 100 Computer, MLP-001 Light Pen, PR3000 Daisy 

Wheel Printer, JVC-F303 Disk Drive 


Wide selection of software including all the latest titles 

Phone or write for our 377 titles mail order price list 

Ofrrffcnrfm’r • • WHERE expert and friendly service 


IS ALWAYS ON HAND 


D. L. CHITTENDEN LTD. 

59-61 The Broadway 
Chesham, Bucks, HP5 1BX. 

Tel: (0494) 784441 
ESTABLISHED OVER 60 YEARS 




SOFTWARE 

NORTHAMPTON’S 
MSX SPECIALISTS 


TOP 40 

NEMESIS Cart £14.75 

G00NIES Cart £14.75 

KNIGHTMARE Cart £14.75 

GREEN BERET Cart £14.75 

JAIL BREAK Cart £14.75 

MEANING OF LIFE £7.50 

FU22BALL £7.50 

APE MAN STRIKES AGAIN £7.50 

CONFUSED £8.25 

FRONTLINE £3.89 

MSX ARTIST £3.89 

ATTACK OF KILLER TOMATOES £6.95 

DEVS EX MACHINA £7.95 

STARQUAKE £7.95 

VERA CRU2 £8.75 

PRICE OF MAGIK £8.75 

SPEED KING £1.99 

COMPUTER HITS 3 £8.75 

VESTR0N £1.99 

FOOT VOLLEY £1.99 

JOYSTICKS 

CHEETAH 125 £7.50 

CHEETAH MACH 1 £13.49 

COMP PRO 5000 £13.95 

QUICKSHOT TURBO £12.49 

QUICKSH0T II £6.99 


SCRABBLE £8.75 

MONOPOLY £8.75 

CLUED0 £8.75 

OLE £2.99 

CHICKEN CHASE £2.99 

TRAILBLA2ER £7.25 

FUTURE KNIGHT £7.25 

AVENGER £8.75 

FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR £7.25 

MSX CLASSICS £8.75 

CYBERUN £8.75 

GAUNTLET £8.75 

SUPERCYCLE £8.75 

WINTER GAMES £8.75 

BC II GROG’S REVENGE £7.99 

DAMBUSTERS £8.75 

MSXTRA £8.75 

W.A.R £8.25 

MANDRAG0RE £12.95 

JEWELS OF DARKNESS £12.95 

ACCESSORIES 

5V4" DS/DD DISKS, 10 Pack £12.49 

C15 DATA CASSETTES, 10 Pack £4.95 

DATA RECORDER (Cheetah) £24.50 

HEAD ALIGNMENT TAPE KIT £4.95 

TOSHIBA HX-P550 PRINTER £129.95 


A-Z SOFTWARE Tel: (0604) 24380 

174 KETTERING ROAD, NORTHAMPTON NN1 4BE 

MANY OTHER TITLES A VAILABLE— SEND SAE FOR FULL LIST 


NAME 

ADDRESS 


TEL: 


TITLE TITLE 

TITLE Cheque/PO£ Payable to A-2 Software 



OVERSEAS ORDERS PLEASE ADD £ 2.00 PSP, Sterling Only 

3 7 MSX/12/86 


Cheques and POs 
payable to: 

FACULTY ENTERPRISES LTD 
7a SHERWOOD CRESCENT 
MARKET DRAYTON 
SHROPSHIRE 
TEL: 0630 57465 


SEND SAE FOR LIST 


ORDER FORM 


TAPE PRICE 


1 . 

2 . 

3. 

4. 

5. 
6 


FACULTY ENTERPRISES LTD 


CYBERUN £9.99 

STARQAKE £8.95 

MSX ARTIST £3.99 

COMPUTER HITS Vol III £9.95 

OLE £2.99 

TRAILBLAZER £2.99 

SALVAGE £1.99 

CONGO £1.99 

JUMPIN’ JACK £1.99 

INVADERS £1.99 

CAN OF WORMS £1.99 

STEVE DAVIS (Snooker) £8.95 

APEMAN STRIKES AGAIN £7.95 

FUZZ BALL £7.95 

MEANING OF LIFE £7.95 

HUSTLER/BORDELLO £4.99 

FRONTLINE £3.99 

THE GOONIES (ROM) £15.95 

OCTAGON SQUAD £1.99 

DAM BUSTERS £9.95 


SPECIAL OFFER 


MAXIMA 

£3.99 

HOT SHOT 

£3.99 

OH MUMMY 

£3.99 

LES FLICS 

£3.99 

BINARY LAND 

£3.99 

DRILLER TANKS 

£3.99 

FIRE RESCUE 

£3.99 

TIME BANDITS. 

£3.99 

MIRR0RS0FT737 SIM 

£6.99 

KUMAW/P (Cass) 

£9.99 

KUMA MACHINE CODE 

£9.99 

BLAGGER 

£3.99 

SPECIAL OP’S 

£3.99 

SHARK HUNTER 

£3.99 

VULCAN JOYSTICK 

JOYSTICK WITH AUTO 

EGGY 

£5.99 

£11.95 

£8.95 


0/SEAS, PLEASE ADD £1 PER ITEM TO P&P. PLEASE PAY BY EUROCHEQUE 


ALL PRICES INC VA T 


TOTAL £. 


YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS 


NAME 


ADDRESS. 


SPITFIRE 40-MIRRORSOFT £9.95 

CLUEDO £9.95 

MONOPOLY £9.95 

SCRABBLE £9.95 

THE CHESS GAME £7.95 

NEMESIS (Cart) £15.95 

SPEED KING £1.99 

SNAKE IT £2.99 

MAZES UNLIMITED £2.99 

ICE £2 99 

SMACK WACKER £2^99 


DYNAMITE DAN 

ODYSSEY K (Music) £11.95 

MUE (Cart) — (Music) £24.95 

SAM FOX (Strip) £8.95 

JEWELS OF DARKNESS £14.95 

GREEN BERET £15.95 

JAIL BREAK £15.95 


PLUS VERY MANY MORE 
ASK FOR LIST 


MSX 1 2/86 















r his is the final 
appearance of the 
Basic course in its 
present form, but to make up 
for that, the first instal ment of 
a Basic programming ques- 
tion/answer shop is incorpo- 
rated into this feature. 

It will be a regular series and 
its driving force will be you — so 
write to MSX Computing with 
any queries and, in particular, 
any tips you have for other 
readers. 

It’s your chance to get into 
print, but first it seems appropri- 
ate to round off the present 
Basic series and to review the 
essential points covered. So 
mainly for beginners, here 
goes. 

Perhaps the most obvious 
talent you would expect of your 
computer is the ability to com- 
pute. 

You need to know nothing 
about programming to do sim- 
ple sums like this — providing 
you always press RETURN to 
send each line for processing. 
725+134 [RETURN] 

1 59 (answer) 

You can also try rather more 
complex formulae like this 
sequence to convert from Cen- 
tigrade to Fahrenheit: 

LET C=25 
Ok 

LET F=32+C*9/5 

Ok 

?F 

77 

Remember that the asterisk 
means multiply in Basic and the 
circumflex is “to the power of ”. 
You can also use left and right 
brackets for expressions. 

Most of you will recognise 
LET as being one of the most 
powerful, but least used 
keywords in the Basic pro- 
gramming language. The com- 
puter’s intelligent interpretation 
will understand the statement 
even if LET is missing. It also 
takes up valuable memory 
space — so it is rarely, if ever, 
used. 


Tim Markes rounds off 
his programming 
course and introduces a 

new help feature 


To create a program, just 
number the key lines in the 
sequence and they will be 
stored in the computers mem- 
ory to be used again and again, 
as often as you like. 

1 F=32+C*9/5 

2 ?F 

Now we can run this simple 
temperature conversion pro- 
gram (for that’s what it is) for 
any value of C, like this, for 
example: 

C=22 
GOTO 1 
71.6 
Ok 

Any list I make usually needs 
renumbering to allow for later 
insertions — and program lines 
are no different. Type RENUM 
to number in increments of ten 
and LIST to check the result. 
Notice that the symbol ? is 
actually a shorthand single 
keystroke version of PRINT — 
which in Basic normally means 
“display on the screen”. 

C is a variable name, which 
can be up to two significant 
characters. Imagine it as a 
pigeon hole in the computer 
memory where you can hold 
numeric values or text (charac- 
ter strings). Naturally you can 
INPUT information from the 
computer keyboard — so a 
more flexible interactive pro- 
gram would look like this: 

05 ’Temp Convert 
10 INPUT“Centigrade”;C 
20 F=32+C*9/5 
30 PRINT“Fahrenheit”,F 
40 END 

Type RUN, which clears out all 
the variable locations and 
starts the program sequence at 
the lowest line number. 


This functional trio of INPUT 
information, PROCESS it, and 
OUTPUT the result, is fun- 
damental to all computer soft- 
ware — including games. 
Another key feature of compu- 
ter programs is their looping 
ability. Here is a looping pro- 
gram you can type and RUN, 
which plays all the notes in the 
MSX music scale (in semi- 
tones): 

1 0 'Chromatic Scale 
20 X=X+1 
30 PLAY“N=X;” 

40 GOTO20 

The format of PLAY doesn’t 
conform to the usual BASIC 
rules — it is part of a special 
MSX Music Macro language, 
which you can read all about in 
your manual (or back copies of 
MSX Computing). 

Notice that a variable loca- 
tion like X, which is initially set to 
zero by the RUN command, 
can be changed (X=X+ 1 ) dur- 
ing the progress of a program 
sequence. This “Chromatic 
Scale” program will eventually 
go illegal, when the value of X 
becomes higher than the sound 
system can manage — check 
using PRINT X. You can pre- 
vent this happening by ENDing 
the program when the final note 
value (96) has been reached: 
40 IF X<96 THEN 220 ELSE 
END 

The IF . . THEN . . ELSE 
command is a very powerful 
method of conditionally chang- 
ing the sequence in which a 
program is performed. You can 
also use IF to test for equality, 
inequality, greater than etc., 
most of which are used in this 
article. 


A semitone scale is actually a 
very simple example of “repeat 
this sequence for values of X 
from 0-96 (in steps of 1)’’. It’s 
better programming practice in 
these circumstances — and 
much easier to understand — if 
you use a FOR .. TO .. NEXT .. 
LOOP like this: 

05 ’Chromatic scale 
10 FOR X=0 TO 96 STEP 1 
20 PLAY“N=X;” 

30 NEXT X 
40 END 

Check that negative STEPS 
are also OK by altering line 10 
as follows: 

1 0 FOR X=96 TO 0 STEP -3 
and you will hear the notes of a 
“diminished” chord! 

Words, sentences or any 
character string can also be 
stored and recalled as vari- 
ables (add the characters), as 
in this question and answer 
sequence: 

05 Text/Numbers 
10 INPUT“Name,Age”;N$,A 
20 PRINT“Hallo! “N$” aged“A 
The Basic programming lan- 
guage also has a method of 
reserving a group of locations, 
which can then be treated like a 
table or list. T ake this sequence 
for continuously storing and 
recalling up to fifty different 
items — say people at a party, 
for example. 

05 ’Remember me? 

10 DIM NA$(50) 

20 INPUT“Name”; NA$(0): 
S=0 

30 S=S+1 

40 IF NA$(S)=NA$(0) 

THEN PRINT“Hello again” 

50 IF NA$(S)=” “THEN 
NA$(S)=NA$(0) 

PRINT “Welcome” 

60 1 F NA$(S)= NA$(0)THEN20 
ELSE30 

The powerful DIM command in 
line 10 will set up a “string” 
variable NA$ with 51 elements, 
numbered NA$(0) to NA$(50) 
each of which can be addres- 
sed using the number in brack- 
ets — which is called a sub- 
script. A multi element variable 


like this is called an array. DIM 
can get quite complex accord- 
ing to the DIMensions of the 
“table” it is representing. Notice 
that line 50 shows an example 
of two instructions on one 
program line. 

Basic will also allow you to 
define tables of preset DATA, 
but you can’t do anything with 
this information until you READ 
it into variable storage — which 
might also be an array, of 
course. Here’s an example of 
using READ and DATA to hold 
the notes of a melody (Good 
King Wenceslas, since it’s 
Christmas soon). 

05 ’T une 

10 RESTORE 40 
20 READ N$ 

30 IF N$o“Z”THEN PLAY N$ 
ELSE END 

40 DATA L404C,C,C,D,C,C, 

L203G.Z 

50 GOTO 20 

The instruction READ always 
picks up the next item in the 
DATA list, but you must point to 
the first DATA line using RES- 
TORE or the program will find 
itself trying to play a DATA line 
from another section of the 
program. 

There are several Basic 
methods of examining charac- 
ter strings — to find a letter or 
phrase, for example. Just one 
of them is INSTR, which you 
could use to find the position of 


a word in a line of text, say. Like 
many other BASIC facilities, it 
can be used in some surprising 
situations. Here is INSTR, 
helping to convert your compu- 
ter keyboard into a simple 
monophonic synthesiser (my 
final method!). It can be done in 
just 5 instructions, but here is 
the enhanced fully transpos- 
able model (use the < > keys) 
in just 7 lines. Just add 
appropriate characters to line 
10 to complete the keyboard 
and get octaves too. 

05 ’Tuneable Synth 
1 0T=30:P$=“qawsedftgyhjik” 
20 K$=INKEY$: IF K$=“” 
THEN20 

30 IF K$=“<”THEN T =T — 1 
40 IF K$=“>”THEN T=T+1 
50 X=INSTR(P$,K$)+T 
60 IF XoT THEN PLAY 
“N=X;” 

70 GOTO20 

I seemed to have used music as 
a logical teaching tool once 
again, but when you under- 
stand the fundamentals of vari- 
ables, looping and changing 
direction, you will find it simple 
to apply these techniques to 
any MSX application. 

Now for the very first time 
here’s the new Basic program- 
ming questions and answers 
series. For the first session, 
you’ve sent in some very in- 
teresting letters and apart from 
the enormous enjoyment I get 


from reading them, you’ve 
brought up some fascinating 
topics for me to try and solve 
suchastime, music, colour and 
graphics. Keep them coming. 

I wonder how many of you 
forgot to put your clocks back 
this year and arrived for a date 
an hour early on Sunday 26th 
October? I know a few people 
who did which just goes to show 
that we could all do with a 
built-in timer occasionally and 
this happens to be the subject 
of ourfirst letterfrom D. Lindsay 
of Lancashire. 

He writes to ask if his Sony Hit 
Bit has a built-in timer? Well the 
short answer is no, but perhaps 
it is worthy spending time to 
explain further. Anytimerwhich 
keeps track of real (24 hour 
clock) time needs a processing 
capability and power to drive it. 

In pre-chip days, clocks were 
driven by a wind up spring. Now 
they need continuous mains or 
battery power to keep accurate 
time. The Sony Hit Bit was 
unique in that it provided a 
battery powered 4K RAM Data 
Cartridge system, which could 
be used with special organiser 
software in 1 6K ROM to create 
and store names and addres- 
ses etc. When the Sony MSX 
was switched off, the batteries 
in the Data Cartridge continued 
to preserve the contents of its 
(CMOS) 4K RAM. 


There was no processor in 
the Sony cartridge and so the 
passage of real time could not 
be measured — although this 
facility is actually available on 
several computers in the busi- 
ness field (for example Apricot 
and the latest Amstrad 1512). 
But don’t lose heart! Our MSX 
computers do have a time 
feature in MSX Basic, which is 
all that most of our readers will 
need. 

Time is a reserved location in 
computer memory which is 
incremented 50 times per 
second — once the computer is 
switched on. As you can guess, 
the contentsof this memory slot 
will regularly overflow as the 
number gets too big too hold. In 
fact time will reset to zero at a 
value of 65536 (work that out in 
powers of two). With that in 
mind, it should be a simple task 
to measure the passage of 
time. You could use this stop- 
watch program sequence: 

05 ’"Stopwatch** 

10 CLS: TIME=0 

20 LOCATE 4,21 

30 PRINT “MINS SECS” 

40T=TIME/50 

50 LOCATE 5,20 

60 PRINT INT(T/60);T MOD 60 

70 GOTO 40 

Regular MSX Computing fol- 
lowers will remember that I 
used this kind of technqiue to 
measure typing speed in words 





per minute (March ’85). I won- 
der if any of our readers have an 
unusual time application? 

Something to brighten up the 
longer and darker winter even- 
ings is a touch of colour — 
another of the postbag topics 
this month. A neatly written 
question from Wayne Slatford 
and Brett Rapley in Manchester 
says “we are puzzled by the 
inclusion of the colour 0 (i.e. 
transparent) — why put in a 
colour you cannot see?” 

On the same subject, David 
Barnes from Reading would 
like to know if you can — 
“change physical colours cor- 
responding to their logical col- 
ours like you can do with the 
BBC Micro’s VDU command”? 

You won’t always find a neat 
answer to the question why is 
this or that facility present or 
absent. Sometimes hardware 
and software designers will 
include something just be- 
cause it’s simple and cheap to 
implement. Only later does it 
turn out to be amazingly useful. 
The COLOR 0 (zero) looks and 
sounds transparent, so if 0 is 
going to be included in the 
coding system at all, it might as 
well be transparent — eh?! 

On the BBC Micro 
(0= BLACK), there is no trans- 
parent colour. This means that 
to make something on a mult- 
colour screen disappear, you 
have to display it again in 
background colour. 

Displaying the image again 
in the original foreground col- 
our will cause it to flash or 
appear to move depending on 
its position. On MSX, you can 
make an image disappear no 
matter what the background 
colour by turning it transparent 
with COLOR 0, which is simpler 
to program (and remember). 

In the text based screen 
modes zero and one the Basic 
COLOR codes refer directly to 
an actual colour (for example 6 
always equals dark red). The 
BBC Micro, on the other hand, 
operates a paint palette sys- 
tem. In other words, you can 
change which actual colours 
are in which logical pot num- 
bers. Your MSX system uses a 
similar palette arrangement to 
manage the colour display in 
screen mode two and you need 
to be aware of how it works to 
avoid smudged pictures. 

Screen two has a 256x192 
dot (pixel) matrix. In theory 
then, you should be able to 
PSET any of these 49152 


points to any of the 1 6 colours 
(including transparent) avail- 
able on MSX. This is a memory 
crunching task indeed and the 
more the system reserves for 
its own use, the less there is for 
you. Hence we have a com- 
promise. Marginally less colour 
choice, and correspondingly 
more RAM for us. 

In practice, you can select 
only two colours for every 8x 1 
(across, down) pixel block on 
the screen in mode two. The 
MSX video RAM map holds 
these as Background (=0) or 
foreground (=1). A separate 
two colour attribution or palette 
table is kept to show which two 
colours are allocated to which 
of the 6144 (8x1) pixel blocks 
on the screen. So what then? 

Well, since MSX holds only 
two colours for each block, 
what happens if a third colour is 
requested for any part of an 
8x1 block? You can guess, 
perhaps. The effect will be 
familiar to anyone who has tried 
painting with water colours. 
Just dip the tip of the brush onto 
your wet painting with another 
colour and it runs. 

This “smudging” effect is 
whatyou might get using colour 
on screen two if you don’t keep 
a careful map of which two 
colours are attributed to which 
block. The bonus is that you can 
change the colour scheme of 
any block just by pointing 
(PSET) at it. 

For a dramatically different 
topic, we turn to Phillip Morris of 
Cheshire. Phillip even includes 
a brief profile of himself, which 
we welcome — mentioning that 
he started programming on a 
pocket Casio PB-100 compu- 
ter. He has provided a hand- 
written program which solves 
quadratic equations. I think that 
writing his biographic details 
proved more exciting than de- 
bugging (or even keying in) his 
seven line masterpiece, 
however, he left out the most 
significant function — the 
square root. 

MSX Basic provides an easy 
method of calculating square 
roots using the mathematical 
function SQR. To find the 
square root of 6.25 forexample, 
just: PRINT SQR(6.25) 

2.5 

To calculate a fourth root, 
you can use (SQR(SQR(X)), 
but suppose you want a more 
general solution to the Nth root 
of a number X? It looks like this: 
10 ’**Nth root of X** 


20 INPUT “x,n”;X,N 
30 R!=X*(1/N) 

40 PRINT R! 

Unless you use single preci- 
sion variables which are correct 
to six digits only, rather than the 
usual 1 4, you will need to round 
up for a more accurate result — 
check it out. Perhaps our read- 
ers have developed some in- 
teresting games with numbers 
on MSX? 

Having finally written your 
masterpiece, how do you pre- 
vent your friends from stopping 
the program and listing it — 
another postbag query? The 
short answer is to use the 
STOP ON and ON STOP 
features: 

1 0 ’** Security ** 

20 STOP ON 

30 ON STOP GOSUB 70 

40 PRINT “Running” 

50 GOTO40 
60 ’STOP Routine 
70 BEEP 

80 FOR Z= 1 TO 999:NEXT 
90 K$=INKEY$ 

100 IF K$=“?” THEN END 
110 RETURN 

Remember to include your 
own method of ending the 
program or you will be forced to 
use the rest switch! 

On the subject of graphics, 
G. White of Rochester has 
been trying to dump Hi Resolu- 
tion screens to his Canon 
T-22A thermal dot-matrix prin- 
ter, but has been unsuccessful 
so far — can our readers help?. 
MSX Computing would also 
like to hear from everyone who 
has experience of creating and 
producing hard copy of 
graphics screens. Please write 
to us with details of your 
particular hardware/software 
technique and see your name 
in print. 

So far this month, we have 
mentioned time, colour, num- 
bers, security and graphics. But 
I have received more queries 
about MSX music than all 
these, so in reply to many 
readers, here is an update on 
the scene. 

Musically inclined MSX 
Computing readers on a 
budget will know that you can 
now use most of the Yamaha 
CX5M music features on any 
MSX computer. Details of how 
you can connect Yamaha’s 
new SFG05 sound module to 
your MSX appear in the 
November issue of Yamaha X 
Series Owners Club News- 
letter. Any MSX owner with an 
interest in music should be- 


come a member — apply to: 
Box 494 Bletchley, Milton 
Keynes. Membership fee is £5. 

Another Yamaha product in 
tremendous demand is the 
FB01 Sound Generator. This 
can be MIDI connected to any 
multi-channel music software 
system (for example the EMR 
Performer) to produce up to any 
eight of 240 preset FM stereo 
sounds of DX7 keyboard quali- 
ty. At under £300, this is a 
multi-timbral heart stopper! 

Yamaha and EMR will also 
be producing editing packages 
for original FB01 voice creation 
in time for the Christmas mar- 
ket. Watch out too for a nippy 
new Playcard system — music 
on credit? This multi-track fun/ 
teach product will be on special 
offer to X Series members for 
£25 — is this a record and can 
you tell the difference? 

CX5 (or MSX+SG05 sys- 
tem) owners are eagerly await- 
ing Digital Music Systems 
DMS1.2 package, confidently 
expected for release by Christ- 
mas. Expect a full colour, touch 
sensitive, 1 6 track music com- 
position system, with windows 
and mouse option, designed for 
use with the SG05 sound 
module, but with facility for i/o 
from any MIDI instrument. 

This is the first of new series 
of integrated music modules for 
the CX5 from DMS, which will 
include a sound sampling sys- 
tem, score writer and multi- 
cartridge expansion unit. 
Watch out for reviews of these 
and other music products soon. 

Remember, if you are having 
any Basic programming prob- 
lems, are having trouble with a 
particular technique or have a 
tip you’d like to pass on why not 
write to us. We can’t guarantee 
to solve every problem as Basic 
does have its limitations, but 
we’ll do our best. 

Unfortunately we can’t give 
personal replies, but as many 
enquiries as possible will be 
answered through the maga- 
zine. The address to write to is 
Basic problems, MSX Comput- 
ing, 38-42 Hampton Road, 
Teddington, Middlesex TW11 
0JE. 

References: 

Electro Musical Research 
(EMR) Ltd, 14 Mount Close, 
Wickford, Essex SS11 81 1G. 
Tel: 0702-335747. 

Digital Music Systems (DMS) 
Ltd, 1 82 Wilmslow Road, Heald 
Green, Cheshire SK83BG. T el: 
061-436 4799. 


OMEGA ELECTRONICS 

FOR ALL MSX BUSINESS SOFTWARE 


A TTENTIONH WE NOW ONL Y SPECIALISE IN BUSINESS & 

UTILITY SOFTWARE FOR MSX 

COMPUTERMATES CARTRIDGES 


MSX TEXT (W/P, Cards, Mail Shot) 

OURS 

£45.95 

RRP 

£49.95 

MSX CALC (Spreadsheet) 

£45.95 

£49.95 

CASH ACCOUNTS 

£36.50 

£39.95 

COMMUNICATIONS 

£36.50 

£39.95 

THE SECRETARY 

£95.95 

£99.95 

COMMUNICATIONS -1- RS232 

£95.95 

£99.95 

SECRETARY -1- RS232 

£190.00 

£199.95 

RS232 CABLE 

£13.00 

£14.95 

MODEM FOR ABOVE 

£POA 

£225.40 

AACKOSOFT 

AACKOTEXT IDS (Cass & Disk) 

£35.95 

£39.95 

AACKOPRESTO IDS (Cass & Disk) 

£35.95 

£39.95 

KUMA 

WORDPROCESSOR 

£25.95 

£29.95 

WORDPROCESSOR Disk 3,5" 

£35.95 

£39.95 

DATABASE 

£15.95 

£19.95 

DATABASE Disk 3.5" 

£35.95 

£39.95 

SPREADSHEET 

£26.50 

£29.95 

SPREADSHEET Disk 3.5" 

£35.95 

£39.95 

HOMEBUDGET 

£11.95 

£14.95 

TASMAN 

TASWORD 

£12.50 

£13.90 

MSX UTILITY SOFTWARE 


HI-SOFT 

HI-SOFT DEVPAC 

£16.50 

£19.95 

HI-SOFT DEVPAC 80 (Disk) 

£35.95 

£39.95 

HI-SOFT PASCAL 80 (Disk) 

£35.95 

£39.95 

KUMA 

KUMA ZEN MACHINE CODE 

£15.95 

£19.95 

KUMA ZEN MACHINE CODE Disk 

£35.95 

£39.95 

KUMA FORTH Cassette or Disk 

£35.95 

£39.95 


ALL STOCK ITEMS DESPATCHED SAME DAY 


Write or ring us for any further details on any of the above listed software 

HELPLINE NUMBER: 01-951 5526 

Detailed list of hardware & software for MSX and Amstrad free on request 
Special offers on Printers, Disk Drives etc, etc — Ring Helpline Number 
All cheques or postal orders payable to: OMEGA ELECTRONICS 

Send to: OMEGA ELECTRONICS, MSX MAIL ORDER DEPT 
PO BOX 135, EDGWARE, MIDDLESEX HA8 5NA 


E COMPUTERWARE ffi 

BONANZA! PO BOX 318 STOKE-ON-TRENT ST6 6UX BARGAINS! 

All items usually despatched within 24 hours!! 

SPECIAL OFFER: 

NIGHTSHADE £2 (YES £2) HURRY WHILE STOCKS LAST! 


TTTLE 

RRP 

OURS 

mu 

RRP 

OURS 

Alien 8 

9.95 

7.50 

Knight Tyme 

2 99 

2.50 

Bounder 

8.95 

7.00 

LAffairVera Cru: 

9.95 

8.00 

Bouiderdash 

6.95 

5.50 

Lords of Time. ...... ....... 

9.95 

7.50 

Castle Blackstar 

6.95 

6.00 

Mazes Unlimited 

2.99 

2.50 

Chicken Chase 

2.99 

2.50 

Mandragore 

14.95 

12.50 

C h ill 6 ^ . **•«•*•■•* 

1.99 

1.60 

Molecule Man 

1.99 

1.60 

Cluedo 

9.95 

7.50 

Monopoly 

9.95 

7.50 

Computer Hits 6 ............... 

6.95 

5.50 

Moon Rider 

2.99 

2.50 

Confused 

9.95 

6.00 

MSXTRA 

....... . 9.95 

8.00 

Colossal Adventure ........... 

.......9.95 

7.50 

McAdam Bumper. . .. ... 

8.95 

7.00 

Computer Hits 10 Vol 3 

9.95 

6.00 

Ole 

2.99 

2.50 

Cyberun 

9.95 

6.00 

Panique ..................... 

2.99 

2.50 

Database (Kuma) 

19.95 

15.50 

Pascal (Hi-Soft) 

29.95 

24.00 

Dambusters 

.... 9.95 

8.00 

Panel Panic 

299 

2.50 

Devpac (Hi-Soft) 

19.95 

15.50 

Price of Magik 

9.95 

7.50 

Decathlon 

11.99 

6.50 

Red Moon 

........... 6.95 

5.50 

Dungeon Adventure ............ 

995 

7.50 

Return to Eden 

9.95 

7.50 

Emerald Isle 

6.95 

5.50 

Robot Wars 

2.99 

2.50 

Finders Keepers 

1 .99 

1.60 

Scrabble 

9.95 

7.50 

Formula 1 

1.99 

1.60 

Skramble.. ............ ...... 

1 .99 

1.60 

Football Manager 

8.95 

7.00 

Smack Wacker 

2.99 

2.50 

Ghostbusters 

11.95 

9.50 

Snake IT 

2.99 

2.50 

Grog’s Revenge 

9.95 

6.00 

Sorcery . . . . . . 

8.95 

7.00 

Gridtrap 

1.99 

1.60 

Space Walk 

1 99 

1.60 

Gunf right 

9.95 

7.50 

Speed King 

1 .99 

1.60 

Hobbit 

14.95 

11.00 

Steve Davis Snooker 

8.95 

7.50 

Ice King 

6.95 

6.00 

Tasword 

13.90 

10.00 

Ice 

2.99 

2.50 

The Boss 

6.95 

5.50 

International Karate 

7.95 

6.00 

Trailblazer 

7.95 

6.50 

Jet Set Willy/Manic Miner (twin pk) 

....... 7.95 

6.00 

Turmoil 

2.95 

2.50 

Jack The Nipper 

8.95 

7.00 

Val Kyr 

8.95 

7.00 

Jet Set Willy 2 

7.95 

6.00 

W.A.R 

8.95 

7.50 

Jewels of Darkness 

14.95 

12.50 

Way of the Tiger 

9.95 

7.00 

Journey to Centre of Earth .... 

2.95 

2.50 

Worm in Paradise 

9.95 

7.50 

Night Lore 

...... 9.95 

6.00 

Zoids 

8.95 

6.50 


All software consists of genuine, brand new, original titles. 
Prices include post and packing (orders of less than £5.00 in total 

please add 50p). 

Overseas add £1 for 1 st item then 50p for each additional item. 
Subject to availability, all software are usually despatched within 24 

hours. 

Please make cheques/POs payable to ‘COMPUTERWARE’ 


HV3A 3 HI dO ddTlVaiOOd 

ro 

vl 

6083 

v'91 3»vnoavxs 

CD 

-08 L 

9663 saiisnavwa 

CJI 

-1-30 

r val lxaunnw 


IDLANDS 


OFTWARE 


TRAVAGANZA 


HAPPYM.S.XMAS 


CD 

O 

CO 

CM 

CO 

CO 

h- 

I 

CVJ 

o 


CC 

< 

LD 

> 

< 

Q 


o 

0. 

Ill 

Z 

o 

co 


O 

cc 

D 


96 '683 A1N0 

SaaV08A3>l DNUdlAIVS OISVO 


VISA AND ACCESS 
ORDERS TAKEN 


66 63 S3IAIV9 U31NIM 


O) 

o 

00 

CVJ 

LL prj 
Oco 

LL hp 

§1 

So 

££ 

OI 

]h 

o 4 

o 

o< 

So 

jO 

x£ 

WI 


GAUNTLET 

£9.95 

o 


io 

05 

O) 

CVJ 

04 


CO 

LU 

m 

O 

0 

1 

CO 

o 


CO 05- 

O oj 

O 


LO 

O) 

CO 

04 

* 

O 


CO 

> 

o 


CO 

o 


MSX LEADS 


ZANUSSI 
20" MONITOR/TV 
REMOTE TWIN 
SPEAKERS 
TELETEXT 
ADAPTABLE £259.95 


MSX2 SOFTWARE COMING SOON 

EAGLE CONTROL 

CHOPPER 

PHONE 

NOW! 

THUNDERBALL 

LEATHER SKIRTS 

CHESS GAME 

AACKOSCRIBE 


SPITFIRE 40 
£9.95 


co 

> 

CO 


o 


5 


ro 

o> 

co 


RS-232 

INTERFACE 

£99.95 


RS-232 

LEAD/CABLE 

£34.95 


PRINTERS 


DISK DRIVES 


S6Z3 d3zvna ividi 


MSX COMPUTERS IN STOCK 


05 

O 

00 

CM 

I 

CO 

00 

i 

CVJ 

o 


EUROMAX JOYSTICKS 

ELITE 
MICROPRO 
ARCADE 


PRO ACE 
MICRO ACE 


ELITUAUTOFIRE) PR0 ( AUT0FIRE ) 
SURESHOT DELUX ARCADE 

(TURBO) 


m 

z 

o 

m 

J3 

ro 

co 

co 

cn 


FROM £11.95 TO £22.95 


021-783-2809 GREEN BERET £15.95 


MAILORDERS, CONT ACT TRACEY 


NEMESIS 

£15.95 


T| 

J3 

O 


m 

n 

co 

CD 

CD 


ALL KUMA 
GAMES 
£2.99 


TEL: 


i i CJi 

COO 
CM 00 OO 

o cm 


STAR PRINTERS 

£79 + VAT 



SEND SAE 


CD 

ID 

a> 

FOR FULL 

to 

O) 

_i CC 

LO 

SOFTWARE & 

LO 

o< 

w 

HARDWARE 

w 

CC ^ 

* 

LISTS 

CO 

3< 

LU 


LU 

cc 

CD 

TATUNG 

Z 

o 

? 04 

_J 

TV/MON 

o 

o 

< 

14" £169 

o 



> 

DO 

H 

CO 


ro 

co 

co 

co 


WE ARE THE BEST 
FORGET THE REST 


KEYBOARDS 

CASIO SKI 
SAMPLER 
9 3 KHZ 

SAMPLING £89.95 


JVC 
KB-800 
MIDI COM 
£899.00 


co 

z 

ogc< 

0<CD 

<-V 

DC *- 

O 


CO 

CO 05 

o 


SALVAG E 
CONGO 
JUMPIN-JACK 
INVADERS 


£1.99 

£1.99 

£1.99 

£1.99 


CAN OF WORMS £1.99 


PRO JOYSTICKS £5.95 


o> 

o 

1 OO 

o co 

00 


681-3 310IAI3U .U 
NOIAI/A1 9NDSIAIVS 


96 83 NVQ 31INVNAQ 


w 

is 

IS 


C75 

m 

O 


O 

> 

TJ 

m 

co 


CD 

■ 

> 


ALL KUMA GAMES 
£2.99 WITH THIS AD 


DATA RECORDERS 
SANYO DR 202A 
£39.95 

JVC HR-R105 £89.95 


CONFUSED £8.95 

FUTURE KNIGHT 

THORN 

AUTODIAL 

MODEM 

£216.00 

£7.95 

VISA & 
ACCESS 
ORDERS 
TAKEN 


BULLOCKS 

M.S.X. 

CENTRE 


WARD END, 
BIRMINGHAM B8 2NB 
MANAGER:MATHEW BULLOCK 


G) 

O 

co 

CM 

co 

co 

i 

CM 

O 






Stuck in the goblin’s 
dungeon? Lost in a 
maze of twisty 
passages? Mike 
Gerrard, arch 
adventurer, is here 
to offer help and 

advice 


s the editor’s pin- 
ched the new 
adventure Castle 
Blackstar for his software 
pages, I’ll concentrate on 
your letters and throw in 
some clues . . . including 
several for Castle Blackstar , 
a game I’ve seen and enjoyed 
on other micros. 

Level 9 games are all avail- 
able across a range of 
machines, too, and Bob Fitz- 
gerald of Bearsted is having 
trouble with a couple of them, 
Emerald Isle and Snowball. 
Having been told that he needs 
a long rope to deal with the 
statue's arm in Emerald Isle, he 
now can’t find the rope! That’s 
to be located: TNEMUNOM 
EHT WOLEB XELPMOC EHT 


Nl. If you can’t reach that set of 
locations, a bit of leverage will 
get you there: EUQALP EHT 
WOLEB TSOP EHT TRESNI. 
Bob’s also looking for an idol in 
the same game, and that is: 
SNIUR TSEROF EHT Nl 
TPYRC EHT DNOYEB. 

In Snowball, Bob’s problem 
is simply getting started. He’s 
got beyond the very beginning, 
which often has people 
stumped for a while, till they try 
typing KOOL RO ENIMAXE, 
but when he goes above the 
elevator and tries cutting a tube 
he always dies. Try not cutting 
the tube for a change! The start 
of Snowball, usually slows peo- 
ple up so I’ll give some answers 
to this one, and give them 
forwards, so anyone about to 
embark on the game should 
skip the next paragraph. 

If you go out of the mortuary 
at the start of the game, you are 
continually hounded by the 
nightingales, and as you can’t 
beat these very easily the 
answer is to get away from 
them somehow. The way is to 
PRESS BUTT ON at the mortu- 
ary entrance, doing it three 
times (any button will do), and 
this produces another coffin in 
the mortuary. You can climb on 
this and go up to the next level, 
which you’ll discover is almost 
identical to the first. In fact 
you’re now on the grey level of 
the spaceship, as opposed to 
the white level where you 
began, and the nightingales 
here don’t patrol quite so reg- 
ularly. You can gauge their 
movements by watching the 
messages on the screen about 


clanking noises, and by doing 
this you can keep out of their 
way. This allows you to explore 
these corridors a little more, 
and to send you on your way I’ll 
tell you to look out for a button 
on the floor. 

On to something a little 
easier, and that’s Zakfl Wood. 
Not my favourite adventure, but 
lots of you bought it judging by 
the requests I’ve had for copies 
of the clue sheet. Sunil Bhavna- 
ni from sunny Neasden asked 
how to get into the cottage after 
crossing the river at the start of 
the game. That’s a fairly 
straightforward EGATTOC 
RETNE, but you’ll only get in 
provided first you remember to 
EONAC EHT PORD. How you 
can forget you’ve got one of 
those tucked under your arm I 
don’t know. 



How on earth 
you can forget 
you’ve got a 
canoe tucked 
under your arm 
I don’t know 


Nor do I know why S. Robin- 
son, who lives in Sunderland, is 
having trouble with typing the 
command GET LEAVES when 
reaching the Path of Eternal 
Sleep in Zakfl Wood. When he 
tries this he’s told that he must 
drop something first, which is 
not necessarily unusual in itself 
except that this happens when 
he isn’t even carrying anything! 
Sounds like a bug in the 
program to me, as the com- 
mand to GET LEAVES should 
work quite straightforwardly. 
Has anyone else experienced 
this problem, and discovered if 


there’s a particular set of cir- 
cumstances that triggers it off? 
If so, let both me and S. 
Robinson know. He or she lives 
at3 Coastguard Station, Roker, 
Sunderland SR6 OPD, and I live 
in a cage in a damp dungeon in 
the basement of Haymarket 
Towers, where the editor 
throws me the occasional dead 
rat as a reward for my adventur- 
ous endeavours. 

Andrea Murdie’s puppy has 
strange eating habits too, or 
should that be strange eating 
hobbits? That’s because it 
chewed up her instruction leaf- 
let for The Hobbit, and she 
wrote to me to ask if I had a 
spare copy. I suggested she 
contact those awfully nice Mel- 
bourne House people, who I’m 
sure will be happy to help, and 
then she can contact Barbara 
Wood house for advice about 
the puppy. Adventures are 
difficult enough without that 
kind of problem to contend with. 

Andrea, who’s ten, was also 
enthusiastic about Bug-Byte’s 
adventure, Journey to the Cen- 
tre of the Earth, even though 
she found it fairly easy and 
polished it off in about three 
weeks after school hours. She 
found it well set out and very 
playable, and thinks it gives 
people in her age group an 
insight into adventure games. 
She’s also kindly supplied 
some clues, as well as the 
passwords needed to start the 
final three parts, though I can’t 
imagine anyone having too 
much trouble finding these out 
for themselves. However, just 
in case, the password for part 
two is TNECED, for part three 
TFIRDA, and for part four 
NRUTER. If anyone wants a 
copy of, Andrea’s complete 
solution tg the game, send me a 
stamped addressed envelope 
and I shall oblige . . . such 
generosity. 

Neil Hayes wrote from 
Merseyside to ask how to get 
into the complex in Lothlorien’s 
Special Operations, and as this 
isn’t a game I’ve played much 
myself I hope someone will 
write to Neil to help him out. His 
address is 27 Borrowdale 
Road, Bebington, Wirral, 
Merseyside. We’ve covered 
how to get into the compound in 
that game in earlier columns 
(which you’ve probably since 
used to line the gerbil’s cage), 


but not how then to get into the 
complex. If someone can pro- 
vide a complete solution to that 
game then let me know, and I’ll 
make it available as another 
freebie. Who knows, the best 
solution might even earn the 
sender a Level 9 adventure. 

If you’ve solved an adventure 
and are prepared to help other 
readers who may be stuck, let 
me know, and I’ll print your 
address. The same applies if 
you’re looking for adventure 
pen-pals, orseeking other MSX 
adventurers in your area. 
There’s nothing like a good 
brain-storming session with 
fellow adventure addicts to 
come up with solutions to prob- 
lems ... or even just a good 
moan about being stuck in the 
same place. 



There s nothing 
like a good 
brain-storming 
session with 
fellow addicts to 
come up with 
solutions to 
problems 


Gavin Kruse is stuck in The 
Worm in Paradise, wondering 
how to get tickets for the boat, 
get to a party, and find himself a 
job. Firstly some general 
advice on this game, as it’s not 
one with a set solution that’s 
identical every time you play it. 
Only the very early part is 
constant, and there are lots of 
random elements governing 
the later stages, not to mention 
things that you the player can 
do which create new problems 
for yourself not covered by any 
conventional ‘solution’. One 
piece of advice is to be sure to 
be home before the curfew is in 


force, and also don’t attempt to 
start a job too late in the day or 
the Workstation Droid will reject 
you. Never be in debt, either, as 
you can’t afford to pay the fine 
and complete the game, so 
keep an eye on your creds. 

For a job you’ll need to know 
where the Government Job 
Centre is, and the details of this 
will be given out on a TV advert. 
TV ads will also tell you about a 
travel agent (for the tickets 
Gavin asked about), a florist 
and a hardware warehouse. 
Another piece of advice is that 
the time system in the game is 
governed by a decimal clock, 
where ‘five’ is midday and ‘ten’ 
is midnight. Curfew is from ten 
till three the next morning. Each 
hour consists of a hundred 
minutes, and if you type WAIT 
that passes ten minutes of time, 
while any other command that 
you type in causes one minute 
to pass. 

On the job front, you should 
go to the Jobcentre and take a 
job as a clerk. Don’t accept a 
YTS or YOP job, and if you’re 
not offered a clerk’s job you 
should keep trying, though one 
reason for not being offered 
one could be that you haven’t 
taken a shower in your Habi- 
home — keep clean at all times! 
You should also progress to 
better jobs as time passes. 

Gavin also asked about the 
party at the Temple. For the 
invitation forthat you need to go 
to the Socialist’s Habihome, the 
location for which is found by 
examining a brooch. You must 
take your faithful Dagget with 
you, and this will find the 
invitation for you. 

Some of these comments will 
also help reader Jeremy 
Stocks, who asked me various 
questions about the adventure, 
and who also asked me to print 
the answers backwards so he 
could choose which ones to 
read rather than read them all . 
In a game like this, though, 
some answers are so long that 
it’s impossible to print them 
backwards. What I can tell you, 
though, is the use for the 
Batpak you asked about: TEG- 
GAD Nl TRESNI. Spilling wine 
when opening the bottle at the 
party: DAETSNI EMOH Tl 
EKAT. Where to get the valve: 
RERUOBAL A ERA UOY 
NEHW ESUOHERAW ERAW- 
DRAHNIYUB. 



One reason for 
not being 
offered a job 
could be that 
you haven’t 
taken a shower 
— keep clean at 
all times! 


Jeremy’s final two questions 
were how to cross the ravine 
and how to get the scale off the 
Behemoth. These two are link- 
ed, and again it will have to be 
given forwards so be warned. 
Once the Behemoth wakes and 
starts to chase you, you can 
hide in the thornbush thicket 
close by, and at this the crea- 
ture lumbers past and will fall 
into the ravine. You can then 
cross the ravine on its back, 
taking the scale as you go. and 
see what happens then! 

Finally those clues on Castle 
Blackstar. Map the forest maze 
by dropping objects. It con- 
tains: SNOITACOL LAICEPS 
EERHT. These are: ELPMET 
DNA ETARG, GNIRAELC. To 
get past the drawbridge: WOR- 
RA ERIF. To get the eggs from 
the aviary: NILOIV YALP. For 
this you need: WOB DNA 
NILOIV. Use of the gold ring: 
SNOGARD DNA SEVRAWD 
OT ELBISIVNI UOY SEKAM. 

I can see the bottom of the 
page approaching, so it just 
remains for me to say: EMIT 
TXENUOYEES. 

STOP PRESS: the editor in- 
forms me that the best com- 
plete solution to Special Opera- 
tions received by 5th January 
1 987 will in fact win the Firebird/ 
Level 9 Jewels of Darkness 
trilogy. Entries must be your 
own work. 













June/July 86 

Beyond Basic — the first steps 
to more advanced program- 
ming with other languages. 
Typing in readers’ listings — 
where to look if you run into 
difficulties, and some hints on 
sending in your own program- 


August/September 86 

Yamaha’s new software for the 
CX5M II revealed, plus an 
explanation of MIDI. 
Programming hints to help you 
get the best from your disk 
drives. 

Making the Spectravideo 
Xpress work for its living, by a 
satisfied user. 

Compact printer — the near 



4a etoft f 



ISBuf 

I 11 V V It 1 TlW I 1 

II 1 V ■ ■ M J j 

;.y Jf' Wv »X\V 

outer 

•1 * 2 j 

Bv/, • IvV 

■ - ‘ - /X 1 / ’ •'V*>V •* ‘*\VJ 

w 9 


If you’ve missed these issues of MSX Computing and want 
to get hold of a particular feature, help is at hand. 

Contact our Book Sales department which will be happy 
to send you back issues from our warehouse for £1 .45 per 
copy (including postage and packing). 

Justsendyourname and address plusa£1. 45 chequeor 
postal order made payable to Hay market Publishing Ltd, to 
MSX Computing Book Sales, 1 2-1 4 Ansdell Street, London 
W8 5TR, stating which issues you require. 

Listed below are the currently available back issues with 
a brief description of the major features, tests and reviews 
in each. All issues carry software reviews and listings. 



FI 


JUNE 86 



AUGUST ’86 



OCTOBER ’86 


letter quality Brother M-1109 
tested. 

Sony’s SMC-T 1 1 tested — a 
possible insight towards the 
way MSX might develop. 

How to get the most from the 
function keys in your own Basic 
programs. 

October/November 86 

MUD is not just an adventure 
game, it’s a way of life. We 
explain. 

Control a disk system using 
your own programs with Allan 
Wood. 

Don’t keep yourself in the dark, 
our Knight T yme map helps you 
see the light. 

Adding on a second disk drive 
does wonders for your MSX. 
We show you how. 

Tim Markes examines MSX 
music software written by two 
talented enthusiasts. 



When a copy of MSX Comput- 
ing comes out, newsagents’ 
shelves are often emptied of 
stocks within days. If you aren’t 
quick off the mark you might 
find yourself stuck without a 
copy. 

One possible solution is to 


pop down to your local newsa- 
gent waving a very large axe, 
and suggest politely that he 
increases his order. But we 
recommend a second method 
— so much more civilised — 
your own personal postal sub- 
scription to MSX Computing. 





Please complete this form in block letters, and send it — together with a cheque or 
postal order for £16 made payable to Haymarket Publishing Ltd — to MSX 
Computing, Subscriptions Dept, Haymarket Publishing Ltd, 12-14 Ansdell Street, 
London W8 5TR. 

Name 

Address 


Postcode 


I enclose cheque/postal order* for , for 1 2 issues of MSX 

Computing. 

* Underline the one that applies. 









Hard copy costs hard 
cash , but Steve 
Mansfield has his eye on 
some low-cost options 


W hat’s noisy, ex- 
pensive and 
takes up valu- 
able room on your desk? The 
answer is, of course, a prin- 
ter. If you didn’t know the 
answer, the chances are that 
you haven’t got a printer, in 
which case read on. The rest 
of you can go back to debug- 
ging, or playing games or 
whatever else it is you do 
with your computer. 

Choosing a printer isn’t easy, 
especially if you get bogged 
down in the terminology (for 
which we have a less polite 
name, but the editor probably 
won’t let me print it). 

To help you out we’ve put 
together an interesting selec- 


tion of printers, from the very 
inexpensive to the moderately 
inexpensive. 

Which printer you finally go 
for depends on too many vari- 
ables for us to pick one of this 
bunch as the best choice. What 
we’ve tried to do is select a 
representative range and give 
you some idea of the kind of 
features you can expect in the 
various price brackets, with a 


ceiling around £300. The list is 
by no means exhaustive, but it 
should be instructive. 

If the opening description 
has put you off printers, take 
heart — things are changing. 
For example, printer prices 
have come down and are still 
dropping. Or, if you’re prepared 
to pay, you can get features 
which were just a glimmer in a 
printer designer’s eye a couple 


of years ago. As for the last bit of 
the description, once you’ve 
got a printer you’ll find it’s worth 
every square inch of that valu- 
able space. 

For any serious computer 
application a printer is essen- 
tial. If you use a word processor 
you’ll need some way of com- 
mitting your pearls of wisdom to 
paper — unless you’re going to 
invite all your friends round to 
your house to read the words on 
the screen. You might improve 
your social life that way and 
decide to give up mucking 
about with computers 
altogether, but check the idea 
out with the rest of the family 
first. 

Any self-respecting busi- 













Top: Juki 6000 . Above: Centronics GLP II 


ness program will include an 
option to dump the facts and 
figures it manipulates to a 
printer. That saves your 
accountant having to fight his or 
her way through all the people 
reading your novel on-screen, 
in order to work out how much 
you owe the Inland Revenue. 
Of course, having bought a 
computer you now can’t afford 
an accountant, but let’s not 
worry about that here. 

Programmers also find prin- 
ters invaluable. It’s a real strain 
scrolling up and down the 
screen in a desperate search 
for a recalcitrant bug. Once a 
program is down in print it’s 
amazing how those syntax 
errors just leap off the page at 
you. 

So who doesn’t need a 
printer? Well, anyone who only 
plays games. But you wouldn’t 
do that, would you? Or even if 
you do, you probably wouldn’t 
want to admit to it, so having a 
nice, shiny printer sitting next to 
your micro is one way of 
convincing people that you’re 
serious about this computing 
business. Printers have a high 
bluff factor. 

Of course, buying a printer is 
an expensive way of impress- 
ing your friends. Hanging furry 
dice in your Ford Escort is far 
cheaper, although it doesn’t 
have the pizazz of new tech- 
nology. 

The one thing that deter- 
mines the cost of a printer more 
than any other is the printing 
mechanism itself. 

Dot matrix printers, which are 
by far the most common type, 
usearowofpinswhichhitanink 
ribbon, building up the charac- 
ters outof a matrixoftinydots — 
so the name makes sense, 
really. But that kind of precision 
doesn’t come cheap, so before 
we get into normal dot matrix 
printers let’s have a look at an 
alternative. 

That alternative is the ther- 
mal printer which uses heat 
sensitive paper. The printing 
heads on this kind of device are 
much simpler and so tend to be 
a lot cheaper. 

The Epson P-40, for exam- 
ple, should cost you around 
£95. Possibly the most interest- 
ing feature of this miniscule 
device is that it’s portable, 
running off batteries. That’s 
probably of little interest to MSX 
owners, as you’re still going to 
have to find somewhere to plug 
in the computer. But it must 
have seemed like a good idea 
at the time as far as Epson was 
concerned, especially as that 


company markets a battery- 
powered laptop micro. 

The P-40 will give you 
reasonable print with its 9 x 6 
matrix, albeit on narrow paper. 
As well as the standard pica- 
style characters this machine 
will come up with emphasised, 
enlarged and condensed fonts. 

It’s not up to producing classy 
letters, especially as it uses 
tacky thermal paper, but it’s 
more than adequate for pro- 
gram listings and hard copy for 
your own records. In spite of the 
narrow paper you still get 80 
characters a line with the stan- 
dard font. That’s handy when 
you’re printing listings as it 
prevents too many program 
statements being broken over a 
couple of lines. 

There’s just one snag, 
however. Epson, in its infinite 
wisdom, has just decided to 
drop the P-40 from its range, so 
if you do find one of these 
printers make sure that you get 
any accessories you need — 
like a mains power unit and 
rechargeable batteries — 
straight away. You might not be 
able to find them in a few 
months. 

Star’s STX-80 is another 
thermal printer, but has the 


advantage over the Epson of 
taking wider paper. Like most 
thermal models it’s very quiet, 
and in spite of being cheap 
produces quite good quality 
type. Part of the reason for that 
is that it uses a 7 x 9 matrix 
which gives more detailed 
characters than you get from 
most printers of this type. 

It’s a little limited when it 
comes to typestyles, however. 
You get a choice of normal or 
enlarged — that’s it. 

At 60 characters per second 
(cps) the STX-80 is reasonably 
fast yet it has the one real 
advantage of thermal printers 
— it whispers. Try holding a 
telephone conversation next to 
a normal printer as it spews out 
text and you’ll realise what a 
boon a quiet printer can be. 

The Citizen 1 20D might not 
be particularly quiet — it is, after 
all, a standard dot matrix 
machine. But it has a few other 
things going for it. For a start, it 
has that magical attribute to 
which so many printers aspire 
these days — near letter qu ality 
(NLQ). 

Unfortunately, the term NLQ 
has a wide range of interpreta- 
tions in the printer manufactur- 
ing community. With top of the 


line dot matrix printers, like 
Epson’s LQ series, costing in 
the region of £500-£600 up- 
wards, the phrase means ex- 
actly what it says — that the 
quality of the print is very close 
to the letter or correspondence 
quality that you get from some- 
thing like a posh electric type- 
writer. 

It’s a bit much to expect that 
kind of quality from a printer 
which only sets you back a 
couple of hundred, but the 
Citizen has a pretty good stab at 
it. As well as the NLQ mode the 
120D will, if you ask it nicely, 
come up with emphasised, 
condensed, expanded and 
double strike modes. It will also 
provide super- and subscript 
and underlining. 

Hidden inside the machine 
are a load of chips which can 
save you a lot of hanging 
around. These are memory 
chips used as a buffer. Printers 
without decent buffers stop the 
computer sending characters 
while they print the ones 
they’ve already got. As printers 
invariably print slower than the 
computer sends out data the 
result is a micro which does a lot 
of waiting and not a lot of 
computing. 

A buffer takes as much data 
as it can handle, feeding it to the 
printer when it’s ready. Once all 
the data is dumped into the 
buffer the micro is once more 
free to do your bidding while the 
printer plods away. The Citizen 
has a generous 4K buffer which 
is equal to a reasonably large 
word processed document or 
Basic program. 

Another interesting point ab- 
out this machine is the inter- 
face. Most micros talk to their 
printers through a parallel inter- 
face, mainly because it’s fast. 
But there are occasions when a 
serial interface is required — 
because the micro hasn’t got a 
parallel port, is using it for 
something else or is talking to 
the printer through some other 
device which happens to be 
serial, like a network. 

For those reasons the major- 
ity of printers are available in 
serial or parallel versions. The 
trouble is that once you’ve 
chosen which you want, and 
have handed over the required 
dosh, it can be a little difficult 
changing to the other type — 
short of replacing the main 
circuit board in the printer. 

Toovercomethis, many prin- 
ter manufacturers are provid- 
ing interchangeable interfaces 
on their machines. In some 
cases the interface comes ex- 



Star NL 10 with plug-in interfaces 



Britain's contender: the Samleco DX-85 


tra, which is worth bearing in 
mind when you’re budgeting for 
your printer. That’s the case 
with the Citizen 120D. It does 
mean, however, that changing 
interfaces is a comparatively 
easy and inexpensive job, and 
the change isn’t permanent. 

The 1 20D is one of a bunch of 
printers now available around 
this price range which offer 
virtually everything you’re likely 
to need, except for making 
coffee and advising you on your 
grammar. These are general- 


purpose machines which can 
do most jobs with reasonable 
quality and reliability. 

Another contender in this 
arena comes from Centronics. 
If that name sounds familiar it’s 
because it gave its name to the 
standard parallel printer inter- 
face found on most computers 
these days. 

Whoever was in charge of 
modesty at Centronics 
obviously had the day off when 
the company named its budget 
printer — the GLP. Those 


initials stand for ‘Great Little 
Printer’. But perhaps Centro- 
nics can be forgiven a little 
trumpet blowing considering 
they invented the dot matrix 
printer in the first place. 

The GLP is now in its second 
incarnation. The main improve- 
ment over the first model is in 
speed — the GLP II rattles 
along at lOOcps in draft mode, 
which is about 100 per cent 
faster than the previous model. 

It’s a compact machine and 
has a few tasty design features 
— like a large dust cover which 
is clear enough to read the 
printed text easily. It has the 
obligatory fonts for a machine 
at this price, including NLQ, 
condensed and emphasised 
characters, double-strike, sub- 
script, superscript, and under- 
line. 

Whatthe GLPcan’tdo is print 
all the characters you can 
produce on your micro. Indeed, 
the main disadvantage about 
most of the printers in this 
survey is that they are not fully 
MSX compatible. 

Of course, they are all cap- 
able of handling the characters 
common to all micros — in other 
words, the ASCII character set. 
But they can’t handle the spe- 
cial characters, including 
graphics symbols, which MSX 
micros can so effortlessly pro- 
duce. 

The one possible exception 
is the Samleco DX-85. This 
uses interchangeable inter- 
faces with versions for most 
popular home and business 


micros. One of these is for MSX 
machines, but you will need to 
check availability at the time of 
purchase — you may have trou- 
ble getting hold of one. 

Even without the interface, 
the Samleco is worth consider- 
ing. It has all the usual features 
plus automatic paper loading 
and a fast print speed, at 
1 20cps. It’s also a British pro- 
duct in a predominantly 
Japanese market. 

Another good competitor in 
this medium price bracket, 
although not British, is the 
Shinwa CPA80-I-, which can 
also be found under the Micro P 
badge. It’s another NLQ 
machine with its main feature 
being a buffer option — you can 
have 2K or 4K. 

The CPA80+ is a good, 
all-purpose printer with 
perhaps its main attraction 
being that it comes from a 
reliable stable, through a distri- 
butor — Micro Peripherals — 
which is best known for its 
professional services. For ex- 
ample, the machine comes with 
a two year warranty. 

Although most of the current 
crop of dot matrix printers will 
give you near letter quality print, 
that still might not be good 
enough. In that case you’ll want 
to go the whole hog and get a 
real letter quality printer. In 
most cases that means a 
daisywheel and a bigger over- 
draft. 

Daisywheels use electric 
typewriter technology to give 
superb quality print. Even the 
best NLQ dot matrix printers 
have trouble matching it. but 
daisywheel printers have 
tended to be expensive. The 
Juki 6000, however, is reason- 
ably priced. It’s slow, fairly 
noisy and unsophisticated in 
the way of features, but what 
comes out of it is indistinguish- 
able from the more expensive 
members of the species. 

What you do get for your 
money is variable character 
pitch — that’s the number of 
characters you get to the inch 
along the line — underlining 
and, unusually for an inexpen- 
sive printer, automatic center- 
ing of text if required. 

The Citizen LSP-10 also has 
an interesting text feature in the 
shape of proportional spacing. 
Once again it’s something that 
was rare a couple of years ago 
but is now definitely in vogue. 
What it means is that instead of 
every letter taking up the same 
amount of line space, regard- 
less of whether a letter is a 
capital ‘M’ or a lowercase ‘i’, the 






letters are properly sized. It 
makes full justification in word 
processing difficult but the text 
is more readable. 

The LSP-1 0 is generally well 
specified, including a very good 
NLQ mode and automatic 
sheet loading with the optional 
feeder. It’s a machine for those 
who need both high quality and 
high throughput — a good 
choice as a main office printer. 

With the last printer in our 
selection we’re starting to get 
into the classy end of the 
market, although still at a price 
which won’t bring tears to your 
bank manager’s eyes. 

The Star NL-10 has most of 
the features we’ve already 
talked about. It uses inter- 
changeable cartridges contain- 
ing the interface. It has a very 
high quality NLQ mode. And it 
has virtually every font your 
average dot matrix user could 
reasonably want, including ita- 
lics and double and quadruple 
height letters. 

The buffer is a very useful 5K, 
which means that it will take 
most documents in one squirt. 
In addition to that, printing is 
quite fast, clocking up a useful 
30cps in NLQ mode. 

The other notable feature is 
the ease with which you can 
select many of the settings — 
like NLQ, italics and margins — 
from the control panel, as well 
as in software. 

When you select a printer 
there should be a few points 
you should check with your 
dealer. How much do the 
ribbons cost, how long do they 
last, and can you get replace- 
ments easily? If the printer is an 
unusual make, does it use the 
same control codes as a better- 
known brand, such as Epson? 
This will make it easier to 
achieve a full range of effects 
with some software packages. 
Finally, can he repair it if it goes 
wrong? 

So that’s it. Now all you have 
to do is talk your bank account 
into parting with some money. 

STAR STX-80 £79 

TYPE: Thermal dot matrix 
(7x9 matrix) 

PRINTING SPEED: 60cps 
MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 
213mm (thermal roll) 

PAPER FEED: Friction 
PRINTING DIRECTION: Bi- 
directional, logic seeking 
BUFFER: One line 
INTERFACE: Centronics as 
standard 

DIMENSIONS: 352 x 1 90 x 
100mm 

WEIGHT: 3.5kg 
SPECIAL FEATURES: Quiet 


OPTIONS: Serial to parallel 
converter available 
CONTACT: Star Micronics, 
Craven House, 40 Uxbridge 
Road, London W5 2BS. Tel: 
01-8401800. 

EPSON P-40 £95 

TYPE: Thermal (9x6 matrix) 

PRINTING SPEED: 45cps 
MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 

112mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction 
INTERFACES: Centronics or 
RS232 versions 
DIMENSIONS: 46 x 216 x 
128mm 

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

Battery powered (comes with 
mains adaptor). 

OPTIONS: Rechargeable 
batteries available 
CONTACT: Epson (UK) Ltd, 
Dorland House, 388 High 
Road, Wembley, Middlesex 
HA9 6UH. Tel: 01-902 8892. 

CITIZEN 120D £197 

TYPE: Dot matrix (9 pins) 
PRINTING SPEED: 120cps 
(draft) 25cps (NLQ) 

MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 

250mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction and 
tractor 

PRINTING DIRECTION: 

Normal: Bi-directional, logic 
seeking 

NLQ and Graphics: Uni- 
directional 
BUFFER: 4K 
INTERFACE: Plug-in. 
Centronics as standard 
DIMENSIONS: 386 x 240 x 
90.5mm 
WEIGHT: 3.7kg 
OPTIONS: Parallel interface 
(£38). Serial interface (£52). 
Automatic sheet feeder (£90). 
SPECIAL FEATURES: Plug- 
in interface cartridges. B/W 
reverse image print. 
CONTACT: Citizen Europe 
Ltd, Wellington House, 4/10 
Cowley Road, Uxbridge, 
Middlesex UB8 2XW. Tel: 
(0895) 72621 . 

CENTRONICS GLP II £1 99 
TYPE: Dot matrix (9 pins) 
PRINTING SPEED: lOOcps 
(draft) 25cps (NLQ) 

MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 
254mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction 
PRINTING DIRECTION: 

Normal: Bi-directional, logic 
seeking 

Graphics: Uni-directional 
INTERFACES: Centronics 
and serial versions available 

DIMENSIONS: 327 x 195 x 
71mm 

WEIGHT: 3.5kg 
OPTIONS: Paper roll and 


tractor feed available 

SPECIAL FEATURES: NLQ 

mode. Small 

CONTACT: Centronics Data 
Computer (UK) Ltd, 

Petersham House, Harrington 
Road, London SW7 3HA. Tel: 
01-581 1011. 

SAMLECO DX-85 £217 

TYPE: Dot matrix (9 pins) 
PRINTING SPEED: 120cps 
(draft) 

MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 

240mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction and 
tractor 

PRINTING DIRECTION: Bi- 
directional, logic seeking 
INTERFACES: Plug-in. Most 
available 

DIMENSIONS: 370 x 280 x 
130mm 

WEIGHT: 6.0kg 
SPECIAL FEATURES: 

Forward and reverse line feed. 
Plug-in interfaces. Ribbon or 
spool option 

OPTIONS: MSX interface 
available 

CONTACT: Samleco Ltd, 9 
Fairacres Industrial Estate, 
Dedworth Road, Windsor, 
Berks SL4 4LE. Tel: (0753) 
85471 7. 

SHINWA CPA 80+ £230 

TYPE: Dot matrix (9 pins) 
PRINTING SPEED: lOOcps 
(draft) 

MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 

254mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction and 
tractor 

PRINTING DIRECTION: 

Normal: Bi-directional, logic 
seeking 

Graphics: Uni-directional 
BUFFER: 2K or 4K options 
INTERFACES: Centronics as 
standard. Serial version 
available 

DIMENSIONS: 384 x 315 x 
125mm 

WEIGHT: 5.0kg 
SPECIAL FEATURES: NLQ 

mode. Can be changed 
between parallel and serial 
types by replacing interface 
board inside printer 
CONTACT: Micro Peripherals 
Ltd, Intec 2, Unit 3, Wade 
Road, Basingstoke, 

Hampshire RG24 ONE. Tel: 
(0256) 473232. 

JUKI 6000 £230 

TYPE: Daisywheel 

PRINTING SPEED: lOcps 
MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 

300mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction 
PRINTING DIRECTION: Bi- 
directional, logic seeking 
BUFFER: 2K 


INTERFACES: Centronics or 
serial options. 

DIMENSIONS: 415 x 222 x 
128mm 

WEIGHT: 6.0kg 
SPECIAL FEATURES: Low 

noise. Simple operation 
CONTACT: Micro Peripherals 
Ltd, Intec 2, Unit 3, Wade 
Road, Basingstoke, 

Hampshire RG24 ONE. Tel: 
(0256) 473232. 

CITIZEN LSP-10 £266 

TYPE: Dot matrix (9 pins) 
PRINTING SPEED: 120cps 
(draft) 25cps (NLQ) 

MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 
250mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction and 
tractor 

PRINTING DIRECTION: 

Normal: Bi-directional, logic 
seeking 

NLQ and Graphics: Uni- 
directional 

BUFFER: 4K 
INTERFACES: Plug-in. 
Centronics as standard 
DIMENSIONS: 385 x 255 x 
90mm 

WEIGHT: 3.7kg 
SPECIAL FEATURES: Plug- 
in interface cartridges. B/W 
reverse image print. 
Proportional spacing. Hex 
dump 

OPTIONS: Stand for bottom 
feeding 

CONTACT: Citizen Europe 
Ltd, Wellington House, 4/1 0 
Cowley Road, Uxbridge, 
Middlesex UB8 2XW. Tel: 
(0895) 72621. 

STAR NL-10 £278 

TYPE: Dot matrix (9 pins) 
PRINTING SPEED: 120cps 
(draft) 30cps (NLQ) 

MAXIMUM PAPER WIDTH: 

250mm 

PAPER FEED: Friction and 
tractor 

PRINTING DIRECTION: 

Normal: Bi-directional, logic 
seeking 

NLQ and Graphics: Uni- 
directional 

BUFFER: 5K minimum 
INTERFACES: Plug-in. Most 
available 

DIMENSIONS: 400 x 336 x 
104mm 

WEIGHT: 6.6kg 
SPECIAL FEATURES: 

Forward and reverse micro 
feed. Hex dump. Front panel 
operation 

OPTIONS: Automatic cut 
sheet feeder. Interface 
cartridges 

CONTACT: Star Micronics, 
Craven House, 40 Uxbridge 
Road, London W52BS. Tel: 

01 -8401800. 




t last — we’ve got 
_ enough space to 
include all those 
handy hints, topical tips, 
adventuregamemapsandall 
those cunning methods you 
keep sending in to us on how 
to get ahead with your 
favourite games. 

From now on, MSX Comput- 
ing will be including any in- 
formation you may care to pass 
on to fellow readers. We’ll also 
print a selection of game 
queries and judging by the 
volume that we receive there 
are an awful lot of frustrated 
games players out there! 

So keep the information flow- 
ing in and help a fellow MSX 
user beat the system. Write to 
Arcade Action, MSX Comput- 
ing, 38-42 Hampton Road, 
Teddington, Middlesex TW11 
OJE. 


KNIGHTMARE 

I have just purchased the game 
Knightmare by Konami, but I 
can’t get past the snake- 
headed Medusa in the first level 
as she blocks the entrance to 
the next level. I think I have tried 
everything. 

J. Griffiths 
Newcastle 

Just keep shooting. She can 
absorb a lot of hits but 
eventually you will destroy 
her. 


In response to popular 
demand, hints and tips 
for those infuriating 
arcade games 


5 Street 

6 Museum 

7 Exit (to next street) 

8 Just Micro 

9 ToyShop 

10 China Shoppe 

11 Police Station 

12 Jail 

13 Museum 

14 Gummo’s Chomping 
Molars 

15 Exit 

16 Technology Research 

17 I. Bloom 

1 8 Hummo’s Socks 

19 Room behind radiator 
(bank) 

20 Park 

21 Graveyard 

22 Park 

23 Park 

24 Exit 

25 Playschool 

26 Bank 

27 Park 

28 Park (Entrance to house) 

29 House 

30 Playschool 

31 Room behind radiator 
(bank) 


32 House 

33 House 

34 House 

35 Lounge 

36 Hall 

37 Kitchen 

Useful items: find the object in 
the first room number listed, 
and use it in the second. 


Washing powder 19 4 

Weight 

12 18 

Bomb 

34 12 

Potty 

30 10 

Battery 

11 8 

Weedkiller 

17 20 

Horn 

33 11,30 

Clay 

30 25 

Glue 

4 14 

Credit card 

1 26 

Floppy disk 

26 16 


The key (27) enables you to 
enter the secret passages be- 
hind the radiators. The 
peashooter (3) is useful for 
getting rid of irritating ghosts! 

NEMESIS TIPS 

Level One. 

At the start of every level there 
are formations of ships to 


destroy. Take out a whole 
formation and you are left with 
an energy capsule to remem- 
ber them by. Using these 
capsules you can build up the 
appropriate amount of energy 
to be supplied with an extra 
weapon. On this level try to get 
multiple fire and missiles. By 
picking up missiles twice you 
get faster missiles which can’t 
be bad. Being a basic level no 
problems should arise until you 
reach the twin volcanos: there 
you should position your ship 
directly above the first volcano, 
just under the roof, where you 
safely avoid balls of lava or 
shoot them. At the end of each 
level, most of the time there is a 
guardian ship. To destroy this 
simply weave between his 
shots while delivering your 
own. Either wear him down or 
hit him dead centre. Lasers are 
most effective now. 

Level Two. 

Armed with lasers and missiles 
simply shoot away the red walls 
and avoid the turrets. Try to get 
a shield. The strange package- 
shaped aliens near the end can 
be flown through while you 
concentrate on blasting a hole 
to fly through. The next bit has 
yet more package monsters 
which materialise wherever 
your ship is, so keep moving. 
Deal with the guardian in the 
usual manner. 

Level Three. 

Normal multiple fire and mis- 
siles are needed here, to keep a 
constant flow of fire into the 
mouths of the stone heads, 
thus destroying them. Hiding 
behind or between the heads 
will provide safety. The second 
set of stone heads standing 
back to back should be flown 
between to move you on to the 
bonus level which is a much 
better move than going on. 


JACK THE NIPPER 

I enclose a map and hints for 
Jack the Nipper. 

I compiled the map after my 
friend and I had completed the 
game. Everything has been 
checked thoroughly and so 
there should be no mistakes. 
We hope to send in further 
maps and hints on other games 
in the future. 

Nicholas Lewus 
Colin Mangle 
Sheffield 

Rooms: 

1 Bedroom 

2 Hall 

3 Jack’s Bedroom 

4 Launderette 


KEY: S — STARTING PLACE; P — SECRET PASSAGE 




Bonus Level. 

Switch to multiple double fire 
and missiles and go through the 
centre passage. With this fire 
you can blow a hole in the roof to 
reach the yellow capsules for 
extra bonus points. The green 
capsules give extra lives. 

Level Four. 

Much like level one but faster 
and upside down. Using multi- 
ple fire and missiles dive low 
under the roof volcano and 
move off when clear. The insect 
drones can be simply blasted, 
then avoided and finished off on 
their next pass. 

Level Five. 

One of the toughest levels to 
crack but it can be beaten if you 
use the enemies’ weapons 
against them. Again multiple 
fire and missiles are the best 
weapons as you will need a 
constant flow of fire. Shoot at 
the skulls as soon as they 
appear, before they can shoot, 
and they will go down a treat. 
Hide behind the skulls you can’t 
shoot in time. The skulls take a 
lot of shooting but do go down 
and the pools need to be blown 
up. Avoid the flying bones and 
the few more dragon skulls and 
you will be on to the next bit 
which is quite tricky. 

Stay at the top left half of the 
screen to avoid the alien crois- 
sants and make sure none of 
the blue ball-shaped aliens get 
above you. Make sure you 
shoot as many as you can 
without moving too far down. 
Level Six. 

A very simple but time-consum- 
ing level which is made much 
easier by a technique which 
leaves the aliens practically 
harmless. Try to get multiple 
fire and when faced with the 
brains with tentacles, shoot 
away the red segment of the 
tentacle to render it harmless. If 
you don’t have time to take out a 
tentacle then dive to the bottom 
of the screen and fly under the 
alien. Deal with the guardian in 
the usual manner. 

Level Seven. 

You must have lasers for most 
of this level as you have to shoot 
your way through. Make sure 
you can switch to multiple fire 
near the end as you will need a 
constant flow of fire and a shield 
if possible. At the end, position 
yourself between the two blue 
layers of wall so you are firing a 
constant stream of fire two 
bullets thick, with your ship 
positioned near the back of the 
screen using the blue walls for 
cover. Fire centrally so none of 
the big white aliens fire can get 
past your own. Soon he should 


phase out and dissolve leaving 
you with immense satisfaction 
and the final level to work on. 
Level Eight. 

Armed with double fire and 
missiles simply push forward 
trying to stay as central as 
possible. A little speed will be 
needed to out-manoeuvre the 
package monsters and the 
ridiculous hailstorm of bombs. 
At the end of this level shoot 
away at one of the arms and fly 
through the gates before they 
slam on you. Now you’re here 
shoot away the ropes holding 
the master brain together, and 
you will see . . . well, do it and 
see for yourself. 

Finally . . . buy a big bottle of 
Scotch and do it again in one 
game. I managed to get one 
and a half times round before 
retiring. 

Nick Brown 
Farnham 

SORCERY 

I need help with Virgin’s Sor- 
cery. I have managed to free all 
the sorcerers, reached the 
fountain of life where they are 
waiting and received the mes- 
sage, “You have rescued all the 
sorcerers", but I noted in the 
April/May issue that someone 
sent in a high score of 1 09,841 
and reached stage 3. 

My problem is that my game 
doesn’t have any more stages 
and my highest score is only 
28,000 after completing the 
game. Is there anything wrong 
with my program? 

David Kelly 

Findhorn 

Scotland 

Our mistake, David, it was a 
printing error. There is only 
one level in Sorcery and the 
sole aim of the game is to find 
all the sorcerers. The person 
responsible has been made 
to use a Commodore 64 for a 
week. 


VARIOUS GAMES 

I have taken time off from 
playing my computer to write 
down some hints and tips on 
Mutant Monty, Ghostbusters 
and Way of the Tiger for fellow 
readers. 

Mutant Monty: for endless lives 
press RUN after line 50 of the 
following program and press 
play on Mutant Monty tape. 

10 CLEAR 100.&H87FF 
20 BLOAD “CAS:” 

30 POKE#27872,0 
40 DEF USR=&H9000 
50 A=USR(0) 

Ghostbusters: buy a compact, 
ghost bait and one trap and 
then sit outside GHQ. Press B 
on marshmallow alert and 
move your car only when the 
key and lock get close to Zuul. 

When asked for account 
name type in CODEBUSTERS 
and press return. When asked 
for account number type in 
00166605 for a million dollars. 
Try account name ANDY and 
number 777 for unlimited 
amount of money. When asked 
for name just press RETURN. 
When asked for code type 
31 222646 for 999,000 dollars, 
finally, when asked for name 
just press RETURN. When 
asked for code type: 61 4. 

Way of the Tiger — Sword 
Fighting: 1st Warrior — keep 
slashing at the legs. Ninja — 
keep doing a head splitter. 2nd 
Warrior — hit him and jump out 
of the way. After a while you’ll 
be abletodoacontinuous slash 
to the legs. Armed warrior — he 
is only vunerable in the neck 
and legs. A sword ritual is 
effective against him and so is 
any move to the neck or legs. 
Green Beret: the defenders 
who carry guns are able to walk 
up ladders so be careful if you 
are at the top of a lorry or 
platform. The defenders who 
don’t carry guns occasionally 
start to jump, but to stop them 


just jump in the air and stab 
them. Try to keep your 
weapons until the end as there 
is a final charge at you before 
you go on to the next level. 

On level 2 (the harbour) go to 
the far left hand of the screen if 
you see a parachute in the sky 
as his bullets can’t always 
reach that far. 

If you encounter a bouncing 
dog at the end of the level, use 
the same tactics as on the 
defenders in the first level, but 
be aware that they come from 
both sides. 

On level 3 (the bridge) run 
along the top and kill comman- 
dant before descending to run 
along the bottom of the screen. 
If he appears on the top while 
you are at the bottom, fire a 
grenade to kill him. 

Keep three bazookas for the 
final stage as three men in 
helicopters appear. Run left 
and turn around when the first 
man descends, fire and run 
right. Turn and fire at the 
second man as he comes down 
and finally turn left to fire at the 
last one. 

Level 4 (prison camp) is the 
hardest and longest stage. 
Enemy soldiers appear with 
flame throwers at the end . They 
are difficult to combat, but try 
jumping towards them and 
stabbing at them when close 
enough. When the three or four 
attackers are dead, you’ve 
accomplished the mission. 
John Burnikel 
Sunderland 

PASSWORDS 

The passwords for adventures 
2, 3 and 4 on Journey to the 
Centre of the Earth are DE- 
CENT, ADRIFT and RETURN. 

On Vestron, after completing 
each screen, waggle your joy- 
stick frantically to avoid the heat 
seeking missiles. 

I have a few questions too. Is 
there any way to load pictures 
designed with the Wigmore 
Mouse without first loading the 
mouse software? I compose 
music in Basic on my MSX and I 
was wondering if there is any 
way of getting drums to play 
while I’m playing Mastertronic’s 
Formula One. And lastly does 
anyone have any tips on Mole- 
cule Man, Finders Keepers and 
Octagon Squad by Master- 
tronic? 

Martin Hillarg 
Bradford 

Thanks for the tips, Martin. 
We know for sure that it’s 
impossible to run your Basic 
drum program at the same 
time as playing Formula One. 



Sorcery — only one level 



AACKOSOFT CHALLENGES YOU ... 












Take the nuclear powered aircraft carrier HMS 
Indispensable to the Danger Zone. Use your Recon- 
naissance Planes and Jet Fighters to map out and 
destroy the Terrorist Base. 


C64 

CASS. 

Art.nr. 3074 

£ 

9.95 

C64 

DISK 

Art.nr. 3075 

£ 

11.95 

MSX 

CASS. 

Art.nr. 3059 

£ 

9.95 

MSX 

DISK 

Art.nr. 3980 

£ 

11.95 






p * w -t 


UU , IU 

(til li I r i i i t i * i \iit. 



Neither arcade, nor adventure or strategy but 
all in one... CONFUSED?! Play one of the 
numerous electronic puzzles that will stun 
and exhaust you, but will always keep you 
busy. 



A completely adjustable Chess 
Game, suitable for the absolute 
beginner aswel for the advanced 
player. 


The sparkling challenges that The Chess Game 1 and 2 
offers you have now been especially developed for the 
MSX 2. 

MSX 2 CASS. Art.nr. 3164 £ 18.85 

MSX 2 DISK Art.nr. 3264 £ 21.95 


C64 

Art.nr. 3229 
C64 

Art.nr. 3230 
MSX 

Art.nr. 3213 
MSX 

Art.nr. 3113 


CASS. 
£ 8.95 
DISK 
£ 10.95 
CASS. 
£ 8.95 
DISK 
£ 10.95 






i m x 


MSX CASS. 
Art.nr. 3223 
£ 7.95 

MSX DISK 
Art.nr. 3123 
£ 9.95 





Slowly the engines get heated and the rotor beats the air. Your comrades are in desperate 
need of help. Pick them up out of the blood-sucking jungle and get them to safety as 
quickly as possible. Don’t forget your good fortune: You fly the best heli in the world. 


WmmstA 

ttJJCOTTERt 



As a helicopterpilot 
you maintain a fre- 
quent connection 
between Schiphol 
and several drilling 
platforms on the North Sea. Your deliv- 
eries exist of provisions for the crew of 
transportation of the six and the wounded. 
Prove you are a first class pilot with this 
true of life helicopter simulator. 


NOHiHSEA 

HELICOPTER 


MSX 1 CASS. Art.nr. 3360 

MSX 1 DISK Art.nr. 3370 



MSX 2 CASS. 

MSX 2 DISK 


D r\ D AV 0-4 -4 -4 


Art.nr. 3160 

C64 CASS. 
Art.nr. 3260 C 6 4 DISK 


onn a i r irvr ai 


Art.nr. 3162 £ 13.95 

Art.nr. 3262 £ 15.95 












Level Nine, giants of the adven- 
ture world, have kindly agreed 
to donate no less than fifty 
prizes to our Christmas com- 
petition. 

Each winner will receive a 
huge laminated year planner 
especially designed for Level 
Nine and decorated with col- 
ourful graphics by Godfrey 
Dowson. The pictures tell of a 
world where science fiction and 
fantasy merge — just like Level 
Nine’s adventure games really 
— and are superb. There is also 
space to plan 1 987, day by day, 
month by month. 

In addition, lucky winners will 
receive a Level Nine black 
felt-tip pen to write down all 
those important social engage- 
ments. 

TO WIN 


Win one of fifty 
colourful Level 9 year 
planners — and a pen! 


What do you have to do to win 
these wonderful prizes? Simply 
dream up two witty captions; 
one for the cartoon and one for 
the photograph of the Level 
Nine staff looking rather silly in 
the garden. 

RULES 

1 . The judges’ decision is final. 

2. No employees of Haymarket 
Publishing or Level Nine or their 
families may enter. 

3. All entries must reach us by 
the closing date of Monday 5th 
January 1987. 

4. Entries must be addressed 
to: 

The Caption Competition 
MSX Computing 
Haymarket Publishing Ltd 
38-42 Hampton Road 
Teddington 
Middlesex TW1 1 OJE 








Andy Emmerson 
investigates advanced 
word processing 
techniques 


O ne of the hottest 

concepts of the 
moment is electro- 
nic or desktop publishing: 
with the aid of a personal 
computer and a printer you 
can create complete pages of 
catalogues, newsletters or 
magazines on your own 
desktop. 

T ext produced by word pro- 
cessing can be combined with 
graphics and headings and 
titles also created on the com- 
puter. You can also leave 
spaces for photographs, then 
dump the completed pages to 
the computer and give it 
straight to a printing company 
for offset printing. 

Desktop publishing allows 
you to “do your own thing” and 
create text, pictures and page 
layouts, with no need to pay 
other people a fortune. You can 
then take the finished sheets to 
an “instant printing” shop or use 
your own offset printing equip- 
ment or even a photocopier if 
desired. Already many com- 
mercial catalogues, customer 
newsletters and in-house com- 
pany newspapers are pro- 
duced by this method, and the 
technique is destined to grow 
by leaps and bounds as the cost 
of the technology comes down. 
Sounds fabulous, doesn’t it? 
Perhaps you would like to do 
this kind of thing at school or at 
work, or you may be the editor 
of a club or parish newsletter. 
What do you need to join in the 
fun? 

Well, as with so many things 
in life, it depends! What it 
depends upon is what sort of 
results you are expecting. If you 
want the same quality as “MSX 
Computing” forget it: desktop 
publishing does not give those 


sort of results. Even to produce 
a catalogue of reasonable 
quality you need a business 
computer such as a Macintosh 
(an IBM PC is barely adequate) 
and you also need a laser 
printer with a resolution of at 
least 300 dots to the inch, 32 
shades of grey and an image 
scanner for converting pictures 
to computer format. By the time 
you have bought the software 
as well you are talking of more 
than £8,000, which is probably 
a little more than you or I had in 
mind! 

But with a little bit of effort and 
enthusiasm, plus a little more 
imagination, we can achieve 
something not too far different 
on an MSX micro, using an 
ordinary dot-matrix printer and 
affordable software. Virtually 
all dot-matrix printers can 
handle graphics as well as text, 
and it is not difficult to design 
large letters for titling and 
headings on a micro. If you 
have a printer with a Near Letter 
Quality (NLQ) facility this will 
enable you to print out the main 
text of articles even more 
neatly. 

Charts, diagrams and other 
graphics can also be produced 
on the printer, and all you need 
to do is cut out the various items 
to go on each page. Then you 
can lay them out on a blank 
sheet of paper, add any photo- 
graphs and when you like the 
final layout, past them down 
with Pritt, Cow gum or some 


other adhesive which doesn’t 
cause the paper to cockle. If 
you want a special typeface or 
effect it may be advantageous 
to use Letraset or some other 
similar rub-down dry transfer 
lettering, though this tends to 
be expensive if you use only 
part of a sheet. 

The finished artwork, as it is 
called, can then be photo- 
copied or taken to a print shop. 
One tip: most professionals in 
this field reduce their work. Let 
me explain: if your finished 
page size is to be A4 (and you 
should stick to standard page 
sizes, as the printer probably 
won’t handle any others) make 
your artwork A3. In other words, 
always use the next size paper 
(the numbers decrease as they 
get bigger). If you intend to print 
on A5 paper, make your 
artwork on A4 paper. All profes- 
sional printers can handle the 
task of reducing the page-size 
(many photocopiers also do 
this now). Hand-drawn dia- 
grams will look neater, any 
misalignment will look less 
obvious and you will be able to 
get more typed text on a page. 
Although it will be reduced by 
one third, all your artwork will 
still be perfectly legible, and the 
reduction in size will make it 
neater. 

There are a number of 
graphics designer and word 
processing packages for most 
home micros, even some 
desktop publishing programs, 


such as Fleet Street Editor 
andthelookalikes. For the MSX 
micro the choice is not espe- 
cially wide, but two new pro- 
grams, Print-X-Press and 
AackoScribe , will give you the 
tools for the job. If you’ve got the 
imagination and the enthus- 
iasm, then you’ll have no diffi- 
culties, because these are both 
good programs. They don’t do 
all the work for you of course, 
you’ll still have to be “creative 
designer”! You will need a dot 
matrix printer, and a colour TV 
or monitor is useful, though not 
essential. 

Print-X-Press comes from 
Anglosoft, a Midlands com- 
pany which has also produced 
some interesting software for 
the Pioneer PX-7 video 
graphics computer. At first I 
thought the program might 
have a special tie-in with the 
X’Press micro, but no, it doesn’t 
except that this was the 
machine I tested the program 
on. The software itself comes in 
a very smart package, either on 
disk or cassette. Working with 
cassettes w i 1 1 be a slow process 
if you intend to load and save 
many files; another advantage 
of the disk version is that you 
get a number of demo and 
sample files. 

Print-X-Press is in fact a suite 
of three sub-programs called 
Designer, Compiler and Manu- 
script which enable you to 
design monochrome or multi- 
colour documents. A special 
colour separation facility en- 
ables you to print out text and 
graphics one colour at a time. If 
you are prepared to change 
printer ribbons and align the 
paper carefully before each 
pass of printing, you can over- 
lay colours to produce multi- 




Top: Aackoscribe. Above: output from Print-X-Press 


coloured documents. A source 
of supply is given for the 
coloured ribbons, though I can- 
not guess as to their price or 
their availability for your par- 
ticular brand of printer. 

You can design your own 
lettering styles and graphic 
symbols on an 8x8 or 16x16 
grid, and save up to 254 
characters per file. Characters 
can be loaded, edited and 
saved, also copied, rotated, 
inverted and shifted. You can 
design your own or select or 
modify characters from the 
library supplied. Documents 
can be designed in up to seven 
colours, and you can move, 
copy, centre and delete por- 
tions of a document, all under 
keyboard or joystick control. 
Documents of up to A3 size can 
be produced if your printer can 
cope with this: obviously you 
can view only part of the 
document at a time on the 
monitor screen. Items you can 
design include greetings cards, 
invitations, labels, personal- 
ised stationery, tickets, calen- 
dars, charts, plans and music 
scores. All this can be done in 
any quantity you require limited 
only by the speed of your Epson 
or Epson-compatible dot-mat- 
rix printer. 

In use the program is a 
pleasure to drive. Everything 
relies on menus and choices, 
and it seems to be well error- 
trapped — I did not manage to 
crash the program at any time. 
The disk runs automatically 
and presents you with the 
start-up menu: after this each 
sub-program can be run on its 
own or in combination. The 
well-written instruction manual 
will take about half an hour to 
read and digest, and after 
another half hour’s practice you 
should be up and running. For 
all that, the manual will not be 
easy going for an inexperi- 
enced user. My biggest com- 
plaint about the manual is that it 
concentrates on the mechanic- 
al processes of running each 
sub-program. It does not have 
any illustrations at all, nor does 
it go to any depth into the total 
desktop publishing process. A 
complete demonstration docu- 
ment on the disk would have 


been very instructive. I would 
also have liked to know whether 
an ink-jet colour printer could 
be used, and a complete list of 
compatible printers would help 
many potential users who may 
not know whether theirs is 
Epson-compatible (or even ex- 
actly what this means). The 
packing also ought to tell you a 


colour TV or monitor is almost 
essential — trying to see a 
black cursor on a green-screen 
monitor is very difficult! 

For all this I must say this 
program is a good effort and 
streets ahead of many rivals in 
the field of so-called serious 
software for MSX computers. I 
look forward to seeing the next 


release, when hopefully some 
of these weaknesses have 
been corrected. In the mean- 
time it represents good value 
for money and for all but the 
most inexperienced user it 
should prove extremely useful. 

Word processor programs 
for MSX computers are not 
exactly abundant and finding 
one that behaves anything like 
professional W.P. software is a 
rare delight. I should know — I 
bought four different disk- 
based W.P. programs before I 
found one I could use! The daft 
thing is that there are several 
fairly good MSX word proces- 
sors on the market, and if only 
one program contained all the 
best features of each it would 
be superb. If your interest in 
processing words goes beyond 
just writing letters, spare a 
minute to check out the fea- 
tures you just can’t do without. 

Ideally you need the follow- 
ing capabilities: 

# edit fairly large files 

# centre text as well as left 
and right justifying it 

# saving files in ASCII as well 
as processed format (for 
sending files to electronic 
mail or to people with other 
W.P. programs) 

# use familiar mnemonics for 
embedded commands (e.g. 
JO for justification on, CE 
for centring, etc) 

# set line spacing and where 
a page will end 

# have word count at any time 

# have full control over printer 
facilities (e.g. change 
typestyles) 

# stop the printer as soon as 
you spot a mistake 

# see what you’re doing (in 
other words the screen is a 
close replica of the 
formatted document). 

This last feature is called 

WYSIWYG in the business — 
What You See I s What You Get! 
Having said all this, there is no 
single word processor which 
achieves all this. Wordstar gets 
close and that is what I use now 
(and intend to continue using), 
but it will only work on compu- 
ters with an 80 column display 
(Spectravideo X’Press and 
MSX-2 series). Prior to this I 
used AackoText and I was 



in* 11*15 


.fli-tV 


I • 




© 


g£i3 *>*_ 


|9J3 




ISH 


».©rs« 


,.1F© ’ r,! 


1987 


calendar 


31 


S «? 19 

* »3 2t ' 

7 1* 21 

, C »5 22 

2 3 ** 23 

3 ID «7 2 * 

4 iiJtiL 

r ricPf^ . 
"j Ti *® 

S 12 19 

. 6 13 20 

. 7 M 21 

Ei 15 22 

2 9 ■* 23 

3 


d |S 22 
3 16 23 

Id l 2 2<t 
H ie 25 

,2 I® 26 
13 20 27 

|J 21 20 

■ipv 

;, .. i« 2 * 

f I? »® 26 

,3 *o 22 

7 ,4 2* 2 ® 

e is 22 2 S 

p|_l£il'Sl 

3 1C W 2** 

4 it i® 25 

s tz *9 2S 
,3 20 22 
7 ,4 2. 2© 

ejsj£j* 
,SS§? — i 

eTiF^ 2 * 
9 16 23 3C 

IO *2 2-* 

It I* 25 

12 *9 26 

13 20 22 

14 21 20 


^IP WCH 

, e -Tsrsr*- 

l 9 .© * 3 3 « 

3 .O » 2 2 * 31 

4 11 *© 25 

^ .2 «9 26 

5 13 20 22 

7 1 

Jl6t 

7 -rr*r** 

, e is 22 23 

2 9 •© 23 30 

3 ID *2 24 

J 11 »* 2S 

5 12 ** 26 

6 13 2Q _22_ 

irFt«S5-, 

. -ria^* 7 

7 .4 2* 2 * 

e 15 22 29 

’ 3 .5 23 30 

3 .© * 2 z t . 

11 1© 25 

5 12^35- 
nt cEi**! ! r 

-ris^ 27 

7 1* 2* 2 * 

, 6 *S 22 29 

L 3 .5 23 3 ° 

3 IO 12 24 3. 

4 it te 25 

5 1 2 t«__ 2g_ 


* 3 ■»» — 1 7 1 <% » 

*»«** 

crtEFDW W S IC . Q . 

print X * 

63® f(ict , M** rsllfl 


A neat 1987 calendar produced on the Anglosoft package 


delighted to see its updated 
version, AackoScribe. 

The Aacksoft series of pro- 
grams are all well written and 
presented: what’s more they 
have Interactive Data Struc- 
ture, in other words an inter- 
compatibility. This means that 
names and addresses created, 
for instance, as AackoPresto 
database files can be fed into 
AackoScribe for merging into 
the text of a standard pro-forma 


letter. You could also take 
tables out of their financial 
spreadsheet to put in your 
reports written with Aacko- 
Scribe. 

AackoScribe represents a 
considerable advance over 
most other MSX word proces- 
sors in that it is a WYSIWYG 
program. You see your words 
as they would appear on a 
typewriter, complete with a 
cursor which moves along a 


calibrated typewriter carriage. 
On MSX-2 computers (but not 
the X’Press) the display 
automatically changes to 80 
columns, while on 40 column 
machines you can scan across 
the page with the cursor keys 
(which is tedious and means 
you cannot see all that you 
type.) While AackoScribe does 
not have MS-Text’s clever 
“window” type menus which 
pull down like roller blinds, it is 
properly menu-driven using the 
function keys. A comprehen- 
sive demonstration document 
is provided. The program is 
professionally presented with 
little touches such as a smart 
design showing while the prog- 
ram is loading. The handbook 
contains 23 chapters and is 
exceedingly complete — all it 
lacks is the handy quick sum- 
mary chart of commands as 
provided with AackoText. The 
book itself was produced (using 
AackoScribe!) on a Philips NLQ 
dot-matrix printer and some 
pages have not reproduced 
very well. Using double strike 
would have saved my eyes- 
train . . . 

Virtually all the features I 
would specify for a word pro- 
cessor program are provided, 
and apart from the need for 
an MSX-2 computer I can find 
only one possible problem 
area. This is the amount of 
memory AackoScribe grabs for 


workspace. The program 
cleverly checks the amount of 
RAM free as it loads and if it 
doesn’tfind enough it automati- 
cally re-loads itself while invit- 
ing you to hold down the Control 
key to release memory. Unfor- 
tunately it cannot co-exist with a 
second disk drive, so if you 
possess one of these you will 
have to unplug it physically. I 
dare say that will not worry most 
users, though. 

The price, at £69, is not to be 
sneezed at, but this program is 
streets ahead of most of the 
competition. With the reserva- 
tions just mentioned, I can 
recommend AackoScribe for 
people who need a high-per- 
formance word processor. 

PACKAGES REVIEWED: 
PRINT-X-PRESS 
SUPPLIER: Anglosoft, PO 
Box 60, Coventry, Warks. 
TYPE: Utility. 

FORMAT: Disk or cassette. 
RAM NEEDED: not stated. 
PRICE: £27.95 disk, £24.95 
cassette. 

AACKOSCRIBE 
SUPPLIER: Aackosoft 
International, PO Box 3111, 
2301 DC Leiden, The 
Netherlands. 

TYPE: Word processor. 
FORMAT: Disk. 

RAM NEEDED: 64K. 

PRICE: £69. 


'/ 


A 


•/ . 


//' ' 




.Uj 


V. 




vr 


/> 


dttrr/l, 


r 


u‘ 




Vi 


o 


f/ 


I I 


I I 


I . ! 


Konami s programmers hard at work thinking up another original villain for their 


new game . 


36 



FACULTY 



Wir wiinschen all unseren 
Kunden in Deutschland und 
Ubersee ein recht herzliches 
Weihnachten und ein 
gluckliches Neues Jahr 
wir sind limgezogen 

FACULTY ENTERPRISES LTD 

7a Sherwood Crescent 
Market Drayton, Shropshire 

Und wir haben jetzt eine noch grossere 
Auswahl an MSX software und hardware 

Bitte bestellen sie ihren MSX software 

Katalog sofort 


SPEEDSAVE 4000 

TURBO LOAD AND 
BACK-UP UTILITY 

Up to four times faster cassette saving and loading 

Load Speedsave, change the baud rates to any speed you wish 
between 435 and 4600 baud. Add a third saving speed, and you are 
able to save and load with the most convenient speed. 

Full back-up facilities to tape or disk 

Speedsave loads and saves all machine code programs, even 
headerless and beneath basic area. Files directory or tape header 
reader to detail names, kind of programs, length and addresses of 
all files on disk or tape. Screen copy routine. Cassette based to back- 
up programs up to 43K, tape to tape. 

Disk version with files recovery to restore deleted files 

Disk version for transferring machine code programs up to 40K from 
tape to disk. With automatic shift in memory when a program 
conflicts with the disk area and slot selection. Files recovery to 
restore killed files on disk, no matter the length and kind of file. With 
disk sector reader. 

A very easy utility for use on MSX 1 and 2. 

ON CASSETTE £7.25 
ON 3.5" DISK £10.95 

Includes p&p. Order by cheque or international postal order 
Updates £2 — on original tape or disk 

ARCKSOFT 

26 De Wylch 
925 1 PC Bergum 
The Netherlands 


FOR TOSHIBA HX10 OWNERS. KONAMI’S NEW 
GAMES MASTER CARTRIDGE PLUS ADAPTOR. 
ONLY £29.95 


Advanced Games Master features include, full speed 


adjustment, frame by frame advance, up to 99 lives, 




any level restart. 


r* 


& 


^Sr 


y r\ * 


Although the Games Master cartrige can only be 




used on MSX computers that have 2 cartridge 


slots, your Toshiba HX1 0 will need our 


special adaptor that plugs into the 


c$> > / 

, ' cr A° 

9 y * ' * K OP _ 


to 




back of your computer. 


Please Note; 

Games Master is not compatible 
with all Konami MSX games. For 
further information please 
telephone us. 


e- 

' // 






6 




y 


eP . 6* 


& 


o 


A . 










' >\eP 


<y> 





O# ^ 

















All the latest MSX software reviewed 
in our usual format to help you spend 
your hard-earned money wisey. In 
addition to our detailed description of 
each program we use a star rating 
system, evaluating games on 
graphics, sound, value for money 
and our overall verdict. Where a 


rating is not applicable — use of 
sound in a wordprocessor, for inst- 
ance, the rating is given as N/A. 

STAR RATINGS 

★ Not worth the trouble 

★ ★ Acceptable, but nothing exciting 

★ ★ ★ One of the best 



ROAD FIGHTER 
£ 14.95 


Inspired by T.V. car chases? Stop! Return 
your family’s beloved Morris Minor safely to 
the garage, plug in this Konami cartridge 
and set yourself for the drive of your life. 

In this game you race your red roadster 
using joystick and/or keyboard against 1 1 
blue roadsters, avoiding obstacles on the 
way. These include 18-wheelers that drop 
off oil drums, sedate family saloons, GT cars 
and faster redneck hot rodders which will run 
you off the road given half a chance, oil slicks 
and of course twisting and narrowing roads. 

Your viewpoint is that of a helicpoter 
hovering above your car as the colourful 
scenery scrolls past below. This scenery 
consisting of brilliant graphics changes 
dramatically for each of the six stages. 
These include icy wastelands, cliff roads 
and a narrow suspension bridge. A well 
needed rest is given between each stage as 
a map of the whole course is shown 
indicating your position. 

During racing your position on that section 
is shown on a control panel that also 
indicates speed, fuel and points. Fuel is 
important as an empty tank means the game 
is over and fuel is lost every time you crash. 
However, passing over a bonus purple heart 
gives additional fuel as well as extra points. 

The sound rather than being an 
annoyance, as with some software, greatly 
enhances this game. A jolly tune accompa- 
nies ‘Game Over’ to take the edge off your 


disappointment and a fanfare is provided for 
successful completion of each stage. The 
sounds of the engine, screeching skids and 
explosive crashes really make the game 
realistic and therefore adrenalin pumping. 

It is highly addictive — other people may 
.take over your computer. This is because 
you can always improve, and a skill learnt, 
such as driving out of skids, becomes 
instinctive, yet just as you are feeling 
proficient another hazard — such as an oil 
drum bouncing along the road or a deep 
patch of water slowing down the car — 
causes a spectacular crash. 

The game is also very good to watch and 
so the family end up as back seat drivers 
cringing and squealing at near misses. I 
recommend anyone to buy this game. 

(This is reader Karl Wilson’s competition- 
winning review — see p.51). 


SUPPLIER: Konami 

01-429 2446 

TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT: Cartridge 


GRAPHICS* ★ ★ 
S0UND***_ 
VALUE ★ ★ 
VERDICT * * * 


















SALVAGE 


£ 1.99 


SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 

FORMAT: 

RAM NEEDED: 


Livewire 

Adventure 

Cassette 

32K 


GRAPHICS** 


SOUND * * 


VALUE * * * 


VERDICT * ★ 


Nice to see a new release for the adventure 
fans which isn’t from Level 9 just for a 
change and it’s not a bad little game either 
particularly when you consider the £1.99 
price tag. 

It’s got graphics , whi ch occupy most of the 
top half of the screen, although down the 
right-hand side runs a neat Notepad feature 
which allows you to make memos to yourself 
which stay on screen for the duration of the 
game. To enter those you type NOTE 
followed immediately by the words, and on 
pressing RETURN the words appear on the 
notepad. 

But what are you meant to be salvaging, 
and why, and what’s in it for me? Typical 
adventures’ questions. You’re in a convict 
shuttle ship that isn’t bound for Botany Bay 
but has simply been in orbit round an 
asteroid with a long name for the last 17 
years. You’re not doing porridge yourself as 
the shuttle is now redundant, but you are on 
board looking for the Sequerra Crystal, a 
valuable source of energy. 

Sadly for you, your teleporter device 
throws a wobbler and you’ll have to resort to 
using the shuttle’s device to escape. But 
what’s the code to bypass the security 
system? Any hope that it may have been 
secreted, in whole or in part, by convicts who 
were hoping to escape from the ship? 


The game plays fairly conventionally, with 
one or two word input, a save game feature 
and it understands the usual LOOK, INVEN- 
TORY and so on. The Detention Room 
where you begin shouldn’t detain you for 
very long, and you find a credit card with two 
digits on i t — but are they part of the 5-figure 
teleport code? And why has the Andrex toilet 
paper got 43 written on it? The only thing I’ve 
ever seen written on toilet paper is Govern- 
ment Property, when the RAF thought 
people would steal it otherwise. 

The early problems are all very straight- 
forward, perhaps a little too straightforward 
for regular adventures, but at least the 
game’s well done. Although it’s disappoint- 
ing that it reads the first letter of any word it 
doesn’t recognise as an unexpected move- 
ment command. 

Type SCORE, for instance, and you go 
south whether you want to or not. As this can 
just on occasion be to an instant demise, it’s 
an irritating fault. Who wants to go east when 
you’re trying to eat the toilet paper? 

The tasks do get a little more difficult as 
you go, but even in a quick play it’s possible 
to get qu i te a way i nto the game provided you 
use that SAVE GAME feature cautiously. 
We’d recommend this one mainly for 
beginners, but keen players too will find 
plenty to enjoy in this worthy effort. 


J 


f 


ICE 


Admit it, you’ve always wanted to be a 
penguin, haven’t you? You haven’t! Have 
you no ambition? Well you’re goi ng to be one 
whether you like it or not in Ice, which 
Eaglesoft has licensed from Bytebusters as 
part of its Classics series, “the super-action 
super-super arcades that will make history!" 
That’s what it says on the inlay anyway. Pity 
they couldn’t have found room for some 
instructions, although registered arcade 
addicts will know the general way in which 
you play this one. 

Our hero, the aforementioned penguin, 
though in truth he looks more like a refugee 
from a Pac-Man Convention, starts the 
game on a screen that’s partly-filled with a 
pattern of ice-cubes. In among the ice- 
cubes are three diamonds, at least on the 
first level, though these increase in number 
as the game goes on ... or more likely 
doesn’t, as this is a pretty tricky one, it has to 
be said. Why, we had to play it for hours 
before we could even review it. All in the call 
of duty, of course. 

Now as any self-respecting penguin will 
tell you, ice-cubes are justtheretobe kicked, 
so as you move round the screen under 
joystick or keyboard control you can bash 
the space bar or hit the fire button to send an 
ice-cube sliding across the surface before it 
smashes into oblivion. 


T 


£ 2.99 


You can kick the diamonds, too, though 
they don’t smash and that’s just as well as 
you need to gather all of them together i n one 
part of the screen to enable you to go 
through to the next level. We believe this is 
known as constructing a time-gate, or some 
such description and it’s the bit the instruc- 
tions don’t tell you about so you could be 
kicking cubes forever and not have the 
slightest idea what you’re doing. 

One thing you’re definitely doing is 
keeping away from the inevitable nasties 
that share the screen with you and plod 
relentlessly in your direction. But if you kicka 
cube or a diamond in their direction then they 
kick the bucket — at least for a while, as 
there’s always a substitute waiting in the 
wings. Wouldn’t you just know it? And likely 
as not it’ll be one of the Mafia-types with the 
cool shades that have the ability to walk 
through some of the objects. Rats! 

Graphics are good enough, as is the 
speed of the action, and we loved the sound 
on this one: a truly awful strangled yell when 
you lose a life, and the “Oh my God, game 
over!” when you’ve lost the lot. Not quite 
good enough to warrant three stars, but 
worth three quid of anybody’s money. 

It is a pity that the instructions aren’t a bit 
better, otherwise we might have given it the 
full three stars. 


SUPPLIER: Eaglesoft 

TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT : Cassette 

RAM NEEDED: 64K 


GRAPHICS** 
SOUND * ★ 
VALUE* ★★ 
VERDICT * * 



1 
















KNIGHT TYME 


£ 1.99 



SUPPLIER: Mastertronic 

01-377 6880 

TYPE: Graphic/adven- 

ture 

FORMAT : Cassette 

RAM NEEDED:64K 


GRAPHICS*** 
SOUND * ★ 
VALUE ★ ★ ★ 
VERDICT * * * 


It is hard to describe Knight Tyme as it is not 
what you’d call a traditional adventure 
although you do have to go on a journey, 
figure out the clues and fulfill your quest. 

Knight Tyme isn’t in the same category as 
the classic text adventures, like those from 
Level 9, all the same it is an adventure and a 
cracking good one at that. 

Cast as a Magic Knight, you are trans- 
ported to the 25th century and are on board 
the Starship USS Pisces. 

A metal creature called Klink has given 
you a datacube from which you have 
absorbed a host of information which should 
help you formulate a plan for your survival. 

The first task is to locate the Tyme 
Guardians — that’s if theyexist, and obtain a 
Tyme machine from them so that you can 
make your escape. 

If you’ve read the last issue of MSX 
Computing you’ll already have a head start 
as we published a map of the game that was 
sent in by one of our avid readers. If you 
haven’t read it, do so now, you never know 
when it might come in handy. 

Your journey will take you far across the 
galaxy and you’ll have to visit and explore 
many planets so I recommend that you draw 
a map as you go along otherwise you could 
find yourself covering the same ground. 

The authors of this title have put a lot of 


effort into the design of the game and I 
particularly like the use of a technique they 
call Windmation. What it means is that you 
are allowed to access the windows in which 
the command choices are given. 

Do read the instruction before playing 
Knight T yme otherwise many of the choices 
won’t make much sense. The authors have 
very graciously included some playing tips 
on the cassette cover — use them . Don’t try 
to be bold and manage without ’cos you’ll 
end up making the same mistakes that I did. 
It took me ages to realise that Sarab would n’t 
reveal how to move the starship until I 
appeared wearing a valid identity card. 

The graphics are superb with plenty of 
intricate and colourful details, which all add 
to the game’s appeal. 

This is not the sort of game that can be 
played in a couple of hours, it is going to take 
several days unless you’re one of these 
ultra-brilliant whizz kids who has a penchant 
for solving adventures in not time at all. 

According to the text on the cassette 
cover Knight Tyme is the third in a series of 
adventures from Mastertronic, if that’s the 
case all I can say is that this one’s brilliant 
and I can’t wait to get the other two! 

If you’re looking for an ace adventure that 
doesn’t cost a fortune, Knight Tyme is a 
must. 


PANIQUE 


£ 2.99 


Eaglesoft must know that the only hope they 
have of boosting sales of this title is by 
putting a drawing of a topless woman on the 
cover, though the fact that she has a reptile’s 
head does little to enhance her appearance. 

Nor do the graphics do much to enhance 
the appearance of this rather dated version 
of the old arcade favourite, Space Panic, 
although any resemblance to arcade 
graphics begins and ends with the title 
screen, which is annoyingly the best part of 
it. Pity you can’t play a title screen, isn’t it? 

For those who don’t know, Space Panic is 
one of the original platforms and ladders 
games, before Manic Miner came along and 
made them better beyond belief. You control 
the legendary little man, without whom no 
arcade game is complete, as he climbs up 
and down ladders and runs along the 
platforms trying to avoid the meanies whose 
general attitude is: this screen ain’t big 
enough for the both of us. 

As he’s usually outnumbered about 
four-to-one, the LLM is given a shovel to 
even things up a bit. With a bit of help from 
you at the fire button or space bar (the best 
place to buy a pan-galactic gargle-blaster), 
he can dig holes in the platforms and hope to 
tempt the meanies to fall right into them. 

A quick bash on the bonce with the old 
shovel and the meanie’s sent to meet its 


maker. If you omit to hit it quick enough, it 
climbs out and continues in its pursuit of you. 
Clear a screen of meanies and your reward 
is naturally to go onto even worse screens, 
with more complicated patterns of platforms 
and ladders, ensuring eventually that you 
probably get trapped as the filling in a 
meanie sandwich. 

You have three lives and in addition, the 
man must complete doing his Charles 
Bronson act on the meanies before his 
oxygen level runs out. There are four levels 
of nasties you can confront yourself with, 
these being smart, normal, dumb or moron. 

The game can be fun, and Panique has 
some nice features: keyboard or joystick 
control, hi-score table digitised voice saying 
‘Don’t panic’ and ‘Next level.’ 

What it doesn’t have is decent graphics. 
This is the original stick-man and the screen 
colours are very limited. Response was 
none too hot either, and despite the bargain 
basement price tag it didn’t make us want to 
go on to the next screen, it made us want to 
load up the next game quickly. 

If you haven’t played a game like this 
before then it’s worth £2.99 to find out what 
all the fuss is about, as the actual playability 
of the game is fine. But if you are used to the 
original arcade version you will be dis- 
appointed. 



SUPPLIER: Eaglesoft 

TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT: Cassette 

RAM NEEDED:64K 


GRAPHICS* 


SOUND * * 


VALUE f ★ 


VERDICT * 




















FUZZBALL 


£ 2.99 


SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 

FORMAT: 

RAM NEEDED: 


Eaglesoft 

Arcade 

Cassette 

64K 


GRAPHICS * * * 


SOUND * * * 


VALUE * * * 


VERDICT * * ★ 


And so once more unto the arcades, dear 
friends, once more, to suffer the slings and 
arrows of outrageous Fuzzball. Or some- 
thing like that, anyway. But the only suffering 
you’ll do in this one is through lack of sleep 
from playing it just one more time about 87 
times in a row. 

This is based on the arcade game called 
by various names along the lines of Q-Bert, 
in which you control (joystick or keyboard) a 
springy thingy as it bounces around a 
pyramid that’s constructed from various 
cubes. As the thingy, hereinafter referred to 
as Fuzzball, lands on a cube it generally 
changes colour, and the idea is that you 
have to bounce around the pyramid until all 
the cubes are the same colour, the colour 
you want being indicated at the top left of the 
screen. 

For those poor souls who can only afford 
black and white, there is a monochrome 
option, and we tried this too to discover that it 
works perfectly well. Fuzzball always starts 
at the top of the pyramid, and the first screen 
is comparatively easy as many of the cubes 
only change colour once, i.e. when Fuzzball 
lands on them a second time they don’t 
change again. But this is only the first 
screen . . . guess what’s coming, folks! 

Yes, on later screens a cube will change 
each time you land on it, so you have to plan 


your route very carefully. Deal with the top 
three cubes first is agood bet, then try and go 
down one side and sort out the bottom ones 
too, before filling in the rest. One reason for 
this is that Fuzzball naturally isn’t the only 
thing on the pyramid. Balls start bouncing 
down from the top, so it’s best to sort out that 
area first before the balls start raining down 
in abundance. Later screens have more 
balls, as you might expect. 

The reason for attending to the bottom 
cubes next is that occasionally a ball will 
remain at the bottom instead of bouncing 
off-screen, and this will slowly hatch into a 
snake that then comes bounding after you, 
by which time you should be dealing with 
cubes elsewhere on the screen. Snakes are 
pretty dumb, though, and you can usually 
tempt them to leap suicidally over the edge, 
but make sure Fuzzball doesn’t do it unless 
it’s on to one of the platforms that spring you 
back up to the top again. 

Later screens lead to more complications, 
without which no addictive game would be 
complete, like the rival who also bounces 
around changing all the cubes back again. 
By then it’s hair-tearing time. 

Fuzzball is frustrating, irritating, madde- 
ningly addictive, and could result in a 
severely strained joystick as you thrash it 
from side to side. Recommended. 







_l 


MEANING OF LIFE 


Just what is the Meaning of Life? Is it 42, an 
answer that current philosophical theory 
holds in very high esteem? Whatever it is, 
the answer won’t be contained in a silly 
game like this. 

The game would be pretty poor even if it 
weren’t f orthe rather nasty scenario in which 
your given task is to assemble the latest 
Soviet nuclear device, named KRAZY. Is it 
just us, or do you too find this hardly the right 
subject for a computer game? Maybe if the 
results had been better we might have been 
less critical, but one look at the first screen 
and you can see you’re not exactly in for a 
life-enhancing experience. 

This is the type of arcade adventure in the 
Manic Miner mode, where you move a 
character about the screen and have to leap 
over objects, pick things up by passing 
through them, head for an exit, and 
generally work out for yourself how all those 
things fit together. Great fun in a good game, 
but this ain’t a good game. 

The various missile components are 
scattered throughout the factory that the 
game takes place in, and you have to pick all 
these up and bring them to the assembly 
spot, one at a time. A demo mode shows you 
whereabouts the assembly spot is , and what 
you’re meant to be picking up, which is just 
as well as you’d be hard pushed to recognise 


£ 2.99 


Meaning 


anything with these dismal graphics. It 
seems odd to have sprites the size of 
elephants and yet still containing no detail, 
but you only have to look at our screen-shot 
to see how lacking in detail everything is. 
Those enormous sets of stairs, for instance, 
which look like they’ve been drawn by a 
5-year-old. 

The fact that there are clashes of sprites 
doesn’t help, either, with blocks of one 
colour passing through and temporarily 
obliterating something else. The extension 
of this is usually that the accuracy you need 
for moving about is poorly defined as well, 
and that’s the case here — you can be on 
something when not seeming to be on it, and 
hit some things before your man actually 
makes contact. 

Other elements of the game include a 
clock in the top right-hand corner that ticks 
down from 5,000 while you’re searching for 
the parts, and when it reaches zero you lose 
a life. The ESC key allows you to quit and 
return to demo mode, and you can use 
keyboard or joystick, but why bother? There 
has to be more to life than this. 

At £2. 99 this is a low-cost product, but the 
budget game league has made enormous 
strides in recent months and this offering 
from the talented Eaglesoft team comes as a 
disappointment. 




JfM 




w. 





SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 

FORMAT: 

RAM NEEDED: 


Eaglesoft 

Arcade 

Cassette 

64K 


GRAPHICS* 


SOUND* 


VALUE * 


VERDICT * 




















4 - 


MOONRIDER 


£ 2.99 



SUPPLIER: Eaglesoft 

TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT: Cassette 

RAM NEEDED: 64k 


Another in the series of Eaglesoft Classics, 
re-releases of oldies that are sometimes 
even goldies as well, and this version of the 
arcade addiction of a few years ago is one 
that might be worth adding to your col lection. 

In Moonrider, naturally enough, you ride 
the moon. Well, you don’t literally sit astride it 
as if it were a Kawasaki made of cheese, you 
ride your moon buggy over its surface which 
unfortunately has more holes and bumps on 
it than the Ml. 

As with many of these Eaglesoft Classics, 
you’re given the option of testing both your 
joystick ports as soon as the title screen’s 
loaded, but if your port is pole-axed you can 
use the keyboard as well: left and right 
cursor keys to decrease and increase 
speed, up arrow to jump and space bar to 
fire. 


GRAPHICS** 
SOUND**_ 
VALUE ★ ★ 
VERDICT * * 


It would have been nice to have had a 
chance to redefine this, as we found 
ourselves firing when we should have been 
jumping, but we dare say that you arcades- 
ters out there with your dexterous digits 
won’t have that trouble at all. 

The landscape, or moonscape, scrolls 
from right to left across the screen and you 
must leap the holes as you encounter them 
and shoot away the boulders and larger 
rocks. Just occasionally they slip in a tiny 
boulder that has to be jumped rather than 


shot at, to keep you on your toes. Naturally 
enough the first stage is reasonably easy, 
although later ones have rather nasty 
combinations of boulders and holes and 
sequences of potholes that require a fine 
judging of the speed needed. A Rider Radar 
at the foot of the screen shows you how far 
you’ve progressed along the various sec- 
tions of the surface. 

Holes and boulders alone might not be too 
bad, if it weren’t also for the UFO’s that come 
flitting along dropping bombs and firing at 
you. Luckily foryou, yourfiring action allows 
you to shoot forwards and upwards simul- 
taneously, although sadly your forwards 
firing range is severely restricted so you 
need to practise hitting boulders at the last 
minute. 

The sound effects on this one are only 
average, a feeble plinky-plonky effect that 
could surely have been beefed up a bit. 
However, it’s well-presented with a hi-score 
table for all you egomaniacs out there. It also 
has that all important ‘just-one-more:go’ 
quality, without which no arcade game is 
truly complete. 

At £2.99 it’s not to be sniffed at, unless 
you’re into that kind of thing, and as long as 
you don’t expect state-of-the-art mega- 
blasting with the ultimate in graphics, you 
shouldn’t be disappointed. 


JUMPING JACK 


This, according to the inlay, is “the most 
stunning three dimensional Frogger of all 
time!” Someone at Li vewire obviously had a 
mis-spent youth. And “full colour isometric 
projection” they also proclaim, which 
sounds grand, but it has to be said that this is 
by far the best in Livewire’s classic arcade 
series, at least giving you a good game 
which is not a million hops from the original 
arcade machine. 

The 3-D graphics are impressive, too, and 
we especially liked the addition of Sinclair’s 
C5’s in the slow lane of the motorway you’ve 
got to hop across. 

Anyone who’s led a frogless life so far 
won’t know what that means, but the idea of 
the game is that you control the hopping 
hero and must move him across the screen 
from top to bottom, the problem being that 
between the top and bottom lie a couple of 
fairly major hazards. The first is a five-lane 
motorway, which has to have the most 
unusual contra-flow system ever invented 
as the vehicles in alternate lanes travel in 
opposite directions, and generally getting 
faster the further across you get. Ordon’tget 
if you’re not quick enough on your flippers 
and end up as another road traffic accident 
statistic. It beats the M25 any day. 

Survive the hazards of the road and you 
then have to cross the river by leaping and 


£ 1.99 


landing on turtles and logs that also flow in 
opposite directions. Your final leap must 
take you into one of five safe spaces, and as 
you have five lives, guess what you get to do 
then? Right, do it again, four more times, till 
all the spaces arefilled with frogs. The space 
at the extreme left is the hardest to get at, 
mainly because the logs in front of it are 
floating from left to right and to get there you 
really have to hop to it. 

Then what? Why, do it again with more 
hazards, of course. Faster cars (must have 
put new batteries in the C5s betwen levels) 
and snakes and crocodiles just anxious to 
snap at an unsuspecting frog as he crosses 
the river. There are bonuses, too, if you can 
catch a dragonfly or rescue a female frog on 
yourtravels, but as the levels progress you’ll 
have your work cut out just in surviving. The 
snakeless logs start to get slippy, and the 
turtles have a habit of submerging just when 
you least want them to. 

The game didn’t seem to us to be quite as 
tricky as the original, but it’s very nicely 
animated with good sound effects and 
should especially appeal to owners of 32k 
machines. Would that all so-called arcade 
classics were this good. 

So if being an animated amphibian is the 
life for you, buy it. But can someone explain 
why arcade frogs can’t swim? 



SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 

FORMAT: 

RAM NEEDED: 


Livewire 

Arcade 

Cassette 

32k 


GRAPHICS*** 


SOUND** 


VALUE * * * 


VERDICT* * * 



















SPEED KING 



SUPPLIER: Mastertronic 

01 -377 6880 

TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT: Cassette 

RAM NEEDED: 64K 


GRAPHICS** 
S0UND**_ 
VALUE*** 
VERDICT * ★ ★ 


Fancy a quick spin round Silverstone on a 
high speed motorcycle? If the answer’s yes 
then this release from Mastertronic called 
Speed King is the game to play. 

Your aim is to pit your wits and skills 
against 1 9 other determined riders and work 
your way up to world class level. 

The game has three skill levels and until 
you get the hang of thi ngs your best bet is to 
stick to the first level. 

Your bike is equipped with six gears and 
the selection is made either by waggling 
your joystick forward and back or pressing 
the top and bottom cursor control keys. 

Each of the gears corresponds to a 
particular speed range, just like ‘real’ gears, 
and although it’s tricky at first, once you’ve 
practiced a few times changing gear will 
become second nature. 

Once you get going you’ll find that your 
speed increases very rapidly and you’ll soon 
be tearing round the circuit at breakneck 
speeds of 200mph or more. 

Colliding with another rider will cost you 
dearly as it will result in a spill from your 
machine and a subsequent time penalty 
whilst you fight to regain control. A further 
time penalty will be incurred if you swerve off 
the circuit at any time, so you need to keep a 
cool head. 

The only other bike game I have played 


£ 1.99 


involved a character called Eddy Kidd who 
bore a remarkable resemblance to a 
matchstick man. I was far from impressed 
with that title, but Speed King is far superior 
and will I’m sure turn out to be a winner and a 
real money spinner for Mastertronic. 

Great skill is required throughout the 
game if you are to keep up a consistently 
high speed and stay on the circuit without 
becoming a cropper. 

The graphics although basic are very 
realistic and there’s a good scrolling effect 
as you wind your way round the many 
circuits on offer. My onlycomplaintisthatthe 
background music before the start of each 
race is very metallic and becomes boringly 
repetitive after a while. However this is 
compensated for by the realistic purr of a 
cycle engine as you race around the track. 

For me one of the game’s major plusses is 
that you can choose to preview the circuit 
and suss out exactly what you are letting 
yourself in for before competing with the 
other riders. 

If you manage to achieve a new record it 
will appear on the grandstand display board, 
another nice feature that adds to the game’s 
appeal. 

Motorcyle racing games are few and far 
between which is one of the reasons why I 
reckon this game will prove to be popular. 


THE APE MAN STRIKES AGAIN 


£ 2.99 


Now how to review two versions of the 
mighty Kong arcade game in one issue, 
without repeating all that gumph about 
Mario having to rescue his damsel in 
distress from the clutches of Kong by 
leaping over barrels etc? Because if you’re 
interested in this then you’re sure to read the 
review for Congo too. 

Perhaps we could fill the space by quoting 
from the Dutch instructions, which makes 
the game sound very interesting, with 
phrases like “T rommelend op zijn beestach- 
tige torso.” At least the Dutch readers would 
know what we’re on about, but you do get 
instructions in English as well. Whatwewant 
to know is how you get an English pun like 
“Fight for her before she goes bananas” 
from a Dutch original reading “Vecht voor 
haar, voor ze de pisang is!” Makes it seem 
like she’s been at the contents of the barrels. 

On with the game, however. Where 
Congo has all the hallmarks of the cheapie 
product, Ape Man looks a lot better all round. 
It has the synthesised sound that appears in 
many of these games that originate in 
Holland from Aackosoft, and we like the way 
they try to do something different in each 
game. This time you get a real maniacal 
laugh, and “He’s coming for you . . . Ape 
Man!” That’s as well as the more usual 
“Game Over”. 


That’s not a sound you should hear for a 
while, as the drawback of this version is that 
it appears to us to be very much easier to 
play. We got through the firsttwo screens on 
our very first game, though we admit to still 
being struggling on screen three, with all so 
far being reasonably close approximations 
of the originals. Congo’s problem is that it is 
harder to play, but for all the wrong reasons 
— sluggish and inaccurate sprite move- 
ment, for instance. 

Graphics on Ape Man are better in some 
areas, worse in others. The ape himself 
doesn’t move while lobbing the barrels down 
on your bonce, but he does a nice shuffle 
when he lopes off to the next screen. Your 
man Mario, Alfredo, or whatever he’s called 
in this one, is much better animated with 
good detail, and his legs prove pretty long in 
leaping over the rolling barrels, which is one 
reason the first screen is so easy. 

Neither of these, then, is the perfect 
Donkey Kong substitute, but overall we 
generally preferred Ape Man despite the 
fact that even average players like us are 
soon playing the last two screens. The 
choice is yours. 

Maybe someone will do a journalist’s 
version one day ... a mad printer hurling 
rolls of paper at a writer trying to file his copy 
by the deadline . . . 




SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 

FORMAT: 

RAM NEEDED: 


Eaglesoft 

Arcade 

Cassette 

64K 


GRAPHICS** 


SOUND * * 


VALUE * ★ 


VERDICT** 





















STARQUAKE 


£8.95 



SUPPLIER: Bubble Bus 

TYPE: Arcade-adven- 

ture 

FORMAT : Cassette 

RAM NEEDED: 64K 


GRAPHICS*** 
S0UND***_ 
VALUE ★ ★ ★ 
VERDICT * * * 


Okay, we admit it, we’ve not the slightest 
idea what’s going on in this multi-multi- 
screen arcade adventure from Bubble Bus, 
but we still thought it was terrific and one of 
the best of this month’s batch of releases. 

Don’t blame us, we didn’t get a set of 
instructions, and don’t blame Bubble Bus 
because by the time you read this, finished 
MSX versions will be in the shops. Not for 
long though, as we expect that anyone with 
any taste who likes an arcade challenge in 
the style of those very popular Ultimate 
games will be parting with their penniesfairly 
quickly. 

The game , in fact, is said to have over 500 
screens, and that seemed a conservative 
estimate at times — we’d have willingly 
swopped around the values of five lives and 
500 screens to give us some chance of 
succeeding at whatever it is we were meant 
to be doing. POKEs, anyone? 

Using the cursor keys or joystick you 
control a little blob and it seems his 
dangerous mission is to reach an unstable 
planet that’s emerging from a black hole 
somewhere at the edge of the galaxy. The 
core of the planet has to be rebuilt or there’ll 
be a terrific implosion and then it’s bye-bye 
universe. 

You’re provided with a Galaxy A-Z, and 
this shows that the game is choc-a-block 


with elements such as secret passages, 
skeletonauts, teleports, weapon zapping 
and even flexible thingydoos — the mind 
boggles. 

Not that our A-Z helpd us much, although 
we did discover that you can find ways of 
flying about the screens as well as walking 
and you have to avoid the sparks that fly 
between what look like the horns of Viking 
helmets — very unflexible thingydoos they 
are. 

You can fly off the screen up, down, left or 
right and you’ll have to keep a careful map 
otherwise you’ll wander around like an 
amateur and get absolutely lost. (Of course 
we weren’t foolish enough to do anything 
like that.) 

The graphics are superb, smooth and ! 
fast-moving and the game comes over as a 
cross between Sabre Wulf and Sorcery, if 
such a thing can be imagined. All praise to 
the Bubble Bus designer and graphics man, 
Stephen Crow. 

In its earlier Amstrad and Spectrum 
versions, Starquake has picked up ' Crash 
Smash’ and C&VG ’Game of the Month’ 
accolades and that’s not in the least 
surprising. Good to see a great deal of care 
has obviously been taken in its conversion 
and we can therefore only declare it 
MSXcellent. 


CONGO 


According to the cassette inlay, this is “For 
all Donkey Cong enthusiasts — a chance to 
relive those yesterdays in the arcades”, and 
it isn’t just the spelling they’ve got wrong 
either. Real Donkey Kong enthusiasts will 
be bitterly disappointed if they expect this 
attempt at converting the arcade version to 
come even close to the fun and enjoyment of 
the original. 

For anyone who might have been living in 
the depths of the jungle when Donkey Kong 
came out, this is a four-screen arcade game 
that requires you as the noble hero Mario, 
here renamed Alfredo, to rescue your lady 
friend from the clutches of the killer gorilla, 
the mighty Kong, except this version 
changes the villain of the piece to Congo the 
crazy circus bear. Bears, frogs, gorillas, 
pengui ns — it’s a real menagerie th is month . 

He still shares Kong’s liking for rolling 
barrels and throwing fire, however, and in 
the first screen you start at bottom left and 
have to zig-zag up the various platforms to 
reach the top level, whereupon the hairy one 
will take the young lady and remove her to 
the second screen, whereupon you get to do 
the same to a different design that also 
involves moving pulleys and a bit more 
planning. 

The barrels come rolling down the ladders 
at regular intervals, and it’s spotting the 


intervals and the patterns that will enable 
you to move up the screen and leap over or 
avoid the barrels as they come at you. There 
are also one or two hammers lying around, 
and these you can pick up to bash the barrels 
with, although you can’t climb the ladders 
while you’re holding a hammer — and they 
also have this nasty habit of disappearing 
without warning, too. The ape, sorry, the 
bear, also throws down fireballs but these 
are a minor irritation and usually pretty easy 
to dodge. 

It’s surprising Alfredo can dodge any- 
thing, though, as his movement is so 
sluggish, while thebearconsistsofjustthree 
sprites, hardly the ultimate in micro anima- 
tion. 

Later screens include umbrellas to help 
you in your monkeying around the ladders 
and platforms, while on the final screen you 
have to flit about and remove the joints that 
hold the girders together in order to bring 
the dreaded Congo crashing to the ground 
and ensure that your damsel is no longer in 
distress. 

The game at least has all the fripperies, 
like keyboard or joystick control, good 
hi-score table, pause option, music on/off 
option, and so on, but none of that makes up 
for the actual boredom of playing it. Not a 
good buy, even at £1.99 



£1.99 



SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 
FORMAT: 
RAM NEEDED 


Live wire 

ware 

Arcade 

Cassette 

32K 


Soft- 


GRAPHICS** 


SOUND * 


VALUE** 


VERDICT*. 


















SUPPLIER: Mastertronic 

01-377 6880 

TYPE: Arcade/Strategy 

FORMAT : Cassette 

RAM NEEDED:64K 


GRAPHICS * ★ ★ 


SOUND * ★ 


VALUE * * * 


VERDICT* * * 


OCTAGONSQUAD 


Strategy games seem to be the flavour of the 
month and Octagon Squad is yet another 
low-cost title from the Mastertronic stable. 
Not that I’m complaining as it is a great game 
to play. However before you play the game 
take a tip from us, read the cassette cover as 
you’ll be utterly confused. 

Octagon Sq uadis an icon driven game so 
you need to understand the controls and 
what you can and can’t do, and even when 
you have everything under control, it still 
isn’t plain sailing. 

The key word to remember is team work. 
This game is described as a ‘complex 
strategy and team work’ title — and it is 
exactly that. 

In a far-off galaxy planet 54.7 (funny name 
for a planet) has suffered a heavy chemical 
attack. There are twenty-six survivors all 
suffering from severe brain damage in a 
reactor maze. 

Cast as a Commander your task is to take 
the Octagon Squad to the planet, beam out 
the survivors via the teleport fence and 
escape to safety. Sounds a doddle but it’s 
going to take you a while to get to grips with 
the controls of the game and understand 
what’s going on before you can make any 
serious attempts at winning. 

Once you do get going you’ll find that 
Octagon Sq uadis an intriguing game to play 


£ 1.99 


and it is going to take a far superior gamester 
than I to master it. The screen is very busy at 
all times and in the initial stages somewhat 
confusing. Keeping your eye on the energy 
display readout is absolutely vital, and no 
matter how thirsty you get don’t drink from 
the fountains as they contain an energy- 
draining chemical residue. 

You are also required to coordinate the 
Equadroids — which is where the teamwork 
comes in. The droids need to be man- 
oeuvred into strategic positions so that they 
block off the maze exits and keep the 
baddies out. 

The wording on the cassette cover also 
informs you that there is a hidden edit 
function, all I can say is that it must be very 
well hidden as I certainly didn’t find it despite 
several hours’ play. 

The graphics in Octagon Squad are 
superb and of the quality that is normally 
found in titles with a far higher price tag. 

Intriguing, unusual and impressive are 
just some of the words I’d pick to describe 
the game, science fiction freaks will revel in 
it. 

Like most of Mastertronics’ titles this is 
being sold at a give-away price and one that I 
would definitely mention in my letter to 
Santa. What more can I say except Beam 
me up, Scotty! 


MOLECULE MAN 


Many software houses turn out cheap 
games by the thousand and most are pretty 
awful, but Mastertronic has built up a justly 
deserved reputation for launching cheap 
titles that are excellent value for money, and 
its latest game an arcade adventure called 
Molecule Man is no exception. 

The bl u rb on t he cassette cover descri bes 
this title as ‘the infernal survival game’, 
which just about sums it up as the name of 
the game is survival. 

Radiation (you are told) is gnawing away 
at you and draining your body of all its 
precious energy resources. The pills that 
can bring about full recovery are hidden 
within a multi-perspective 3-dimensional 
maze, and one of your tasks is to find them. 

However as with all good games there’s 
just one itsy bitsy snag! You are lost in the 
maze and finding the pills as well as finding a 
route out will certainly keep you occupied. 

You also have to race against time as the 
longer it takes you to find a way out, the more 
radiated you become, and the less chance 
of survival you stand. 

The good news though is that there is a 
teleporter which you can use to escape from 
the maze, but the corresponding bad news 
is that it can only be operated by inserting 1 6 
circuits (sounds a bit antiquated). Again, 
you’ve got to find them first. 


£ 1.99 


Extra life can be bought and there are 
coins you can use but they are scattered 
(sparingly) throughout the maze. But once 
you find a coin you are then faced with an 
agonising decision: buy extra life, buy pills 
which can save your life or buy some bombs 
and blast a way out through the parts of the 
maze that would otherwise be completely 
unpassable. 

Phew! I’m just as exhausted describing it 
to you as actually playing it, there are so 
many decisions to make and possible 
courses of action to take that quick wits are 
essential. 

Fortunately the game does have a pause 
facility so you can stop, plan your next move 
and have a quick cuppa at the same time to 
help you calm down. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing Mole- 
cule Man as it is an ‘adventure’ game with a 
difference. The writers have incorporated 
some pretty fancy programming, with excel- 
lent graphics that are clear and colourful. 

In fact it is very reminiscent of some of the 
Ultimate adventure/arcade games which 
have proved to be very popular. 

This is the sort of title that will appeal to all 
ages and provide endless hours of intrigue 
and amusement. It is certainly worth buying 
even if it wasn’t being offered at a 
knock-down price. 



SUPPLIER: Mastertronic 

01-377 6880 
TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT: Cassette 

RAM NEEDED: 64K 


GRAPHICS** 
S0UND**_ 
VALUE*** 
VERDICT * * * 





















m First Division 


giants and opted to 
stay with Royers. 


C16 + 4 MSX Spcctrun 


This promisin 
centre-back has sigi 
ed a new contra 
team manager D; 
Thorpe annou' * 
today. M 

Cox, attrcv % 

rfcr*-. • II 


Amstrad, BBC/Electro 
Atari CBM 64/128 


debut 


anaging 


C16+4 CBM 6 
\MSX Spectrur 


Derek W< 


end 

s 'gnaJI^B 

remarkal 
which has 
’orn plav e 


p,r,y\j 

tys Mi 
9 a <nst n IV 


fnd^H 

1 

I lie 8anl 
row fori 

collected 

ser ~ ^ 


-urope tc 
new S| 
about his 
Cj ty. 

Coopeil 


for 1 2 rnoHw 
injury, bn, 41 
week to mu’* 
to a French .11 
medical trJ 
expert PierrJ 
has treated otl. 
pean Stars. \ 

Heislikelj^ 

a<: City areta* 
^ trans fiMH 

reluctant^PP 
1 looked the 


has 

week 

not^^^H 

contract. 

His depart i^H 
end of an era^| 
signalling the fl 
remarkable scoria 
which has made tfl 
born player the dub 
prolific scorer in thd 
war league history. 












1 


1 

1 MiKM 

- i m 

















a 



C16 + 4 MSX Spectrum 48K 


has befallen the faff maid Amelia, held to the evil 
dutches of Spebott the Temble Acting upon annter- 
v dimensional distress signal from the galactic 
\ cniiser SS Rustbucket, don your OmnixjttMafk 
\ IV attack suit and venture forth in pursul of 
\ your beloved's captors Defend yourself 
\ nobly against the Berzefka Security 
\ chads. Fight your way through 20 
\ grueling ieveis onto the planet s sur* 


CBM 64/128 
Amstrad 


fate of Amelia lies with the out- 
come of your mortal combat 
with the awesome Hencho- 

\ droid. Is there any gal- 
\ lantry and bravery left n 
\ this modem day 
\ universe? 

\ Available 
\ November 


Amstrad Disk 
CBM 64/128 
Disk 

£ 14 . 95 / 


f the unknown at a 
breakneck speed 
pushng your reAexes 
to their limits in this de- 


/ ney that s not one for the 
p W farthearted Roll left rofl nght 

W avoiding the endless chasms of 
/ doom that lay in and around the 
/ squares of mystery Squares that will 
/ sometimes slow your progress, on oc- 
/ casion with fatal consequences and 
/ sometimes speed up unexpected or make 
/ you jump automatically. Keep a keen eye on 
/ the clock as the quicker you complete your task 
the higher will be your bonus, CBM 64 version is an 
amazing 2 player simultaneous game. Amstrad Disc 
version contains extra features. 



mr~ ~ - : 


2 




1 i i JWlit 1 1 ' \ 





















T 



SUPPLIER: Nemesis 

01-741 2299 
TYPE: Arcade 

FORMAT: Cassette 

RAM NEEDED:64K 


GRAPHICS*** 
S0UT£**_ 
VALUE**™ 
VERDICT * * 


ROBOT WARS 


Dedicated alien zappers will be in seventh 
heaven with this latest space blaster from 
the Aackosoft stable. 

As the title suggests Robot Wars is a 
traditional zap ’em and kill ’em type game set 
in outer space. All the droids have gone 
bananas and together they have decided to 
declare war against you. 

If that’s not enough to contend with there’s 
also a yellow pac-man type creature which 
bounds across the screen. Bump into him 
and you’ll come to a swift demise. Robot 
Warsisarelativelyeasygametogetinto.but 
it is difficult to knock up a really high score. 
The main snag is that bouncing character, 
he crops up everywhere and no matter 
which way I turned he still managed to kill 
me. 

The game is made all the more interesting 
by the inclusion of a maze, which you haveto 
work your way round whilst blasting the 
droids to smithereens. 

The authors have also written a hi gh score 
table into the game. You aregiven the option 
of saving it and seeing your name in lights or 
disregarding it. Personally I get a kick out of 
seeing my name at the top of the table! 

Should you manage to knock up a lousy 
score little messages will start appearing on 
the screen. For example when I only 
managed to achieve a paltry 700 I was 


£ 2.99 


informed in no u nee rtain terms that ‘an onion 
could do better’ — I’d like to see it try. 

The sound effects are standard for this 
sort of game in other words they are moe 
akin to the rat-a-tat-tat of an Uzzi sub- 
machine gun than a laser blaster. Mind you 
I’ve not heard a laser gun being fired but I’m 
convinced it doesn’t sound like a conven- 
tional gun. But what can one expect from a 
game that only costs a few quid. 

Knocking off aliens isn’t normally my cup 
of tea but I enjoyed Robot Wars. It brought a 
very mean competitive streak in me that I 
didn’t know existed. I also found the game 
compellingly addictive so much so that I 
couldn’t leave it alone and your editor only 
managed to drag me away from the screen 
by being very persuasive! 

Robot Wars will appeal to all ages and 
should keep many a boisterous child , 
occupied for several hours (mums and dads 
might bear this point in mind as the 
Christmas holidays loom nearer). And at 
su ch a low price it is the sort of game that can 
be thrown to the back of the cupboard when 
you’re sick of it and retrieved at a later date 
when you tire of all those adventures and 
athletic titles. 

There are few games that I give strong 
recommendations to and Robot Wars is one 
of them. At £2.99 you can’t go wrong. 


VESTRON 


Having left Konami’s excellent Nemesis a 
smouldering heap in my cartridge slot I’ll 
admit to fancying my chances on Vestron 
by a new company called Players. 

The game is aptly subtitled ‘an impossi- 
ble mission’ because it seems to find it 
necessary to obliterate any timid player 
until he sinks through the floor with shame 
at his poor performance. 

The story behind the game is that you 
must save Earth, which is one of a few 
planets remaining to be conquered by the 
Amstradian empire. Sadly, Earth is dying 
and to hold off the dreaded Amstradians it 
will need a great deal of energy for many 
years to come. This is where you come in. 

You are sent to Vestron armed with 
nothing at all to obtain the ‘caloscin crystal’ 
with which the Earth could win the war 
against the Amstradians. This is essential- 
ly a Jetpack type game and I have seen 
many of this breed before. To the best of 
my knowledge all of them were better than 
this. 

To reach this crystal you must first hover 
around a number of screens picking up 
little energy globes, some of which are real 
devils to pick up even if you fly over them 
several times. Avoiding the Amstradian 
ships which wander aimlessly to and fro is 
more tricky than it seems but you are 


£ 1.99 


wmrr 

1 * 


equipped with a hyperspace option which 
transports you to a random part of the 
screen and more often than not on top of 
an alien. The next part of the game is really 
quite unnecessary and perhaps a bit too 
difficult. I found all three of my lives swiftly 
disposed of in a matter of milliseconds by a 
funny green blur and a message appeared 
reading ‘mission terminated’ — there’s 
faith for you. 

Later I found dodging to be a satisfac- 
tory defence as long as it is at the last 
minute. A whole batch of missiles follow 
and a similar technique is needed to avoid 
them all, going faster every time if you want 
to survive. 

It was after seeing the second level that I 
saw the game as nothing more than a 
rather bland astro-Blagger with irritating 
and suicidal intervals. On the whole the 
game is neat and tidy, though retaining an 
amateur feel about it. 

I still feel Players could offer better and 
will not dismiss them because of an 
unfortunately poor first effort, but I would 
not buy this game at any price. Players 
seems to be an ironic title for a software 
house producing such unplayable games, 
which no company can afford to do as the 
games business becomes more competi- 
tive and standards rise. 


Vestron 




SUPPLIER: 

TYPE: 

FORMAT: 


Players 

Arcade 

Cassette 


GRAPHICS** 


SOUND* 


VALUE * ★ 


VERDICT* 
















KNIGHTS UNBEATABLE MSX PACKAGE DEALS 

£89 SONY HB10B *20 PROGRAMS. Latest 1 12K version of the popular Sony “HIT BIT’ computer. The first MSX with 
the new multi-chip MSX ENGINE integrated circuit. Two cartridge slots, 16 hi-res colours. 32 sprites, 3 voice 8 octave music 
range, very high quality, full stroke keyboard + 3 excellent manuals. Supplied with 20 programs to get you off to a flying start. 
Telephone for full details. 

£119 SONY HB10B *80 PROGRAMS including COMMANDER, MACHINE CODE, ASSEMBLER, + dozens of games 
and teaching programs (see details below). 

£139 HB10B + 100 PROGRAMS including STOCK CONTROL, ACCOUNTS, TURBO DATABASE etc. 

MSX DISK DRIVES FROM £99 


£89 128K QUICK DISK + 20 

£119 128K QUICK DISK + 80 

£139 128K QUICK DISK + 100+10 DISKS 

£29 Box of 10 high quality SHARP blank disks 

The QUICK DISK has 16K of memory built into the interface 
which plugs into any MSX. Just press F5 for a directory of all 
the files on disk. Zip the cursor up to the program you want, 
press FI — 64K loads in 8 secs. Spacewalk takes 5 secs, 
Chess 6 secs but Stock Control takes longer — 7 seconds! 

We supply each unit with all cables, interface, power supply 
+ our exclusive MSX SUPER COPY program with our 
special secret instructions telling you how to transfer even 
* protected ” programs to disk. 


£159 TOSHIBA DOT MATRIX PRINTER + 20 
£169 TOSHIBA DOT PRINTER + 80 
£189 TOSHIBA DOT PRINTER + 100 

The Toshiba HX-P550 printer has PROPORTIONAL, ELITE 
& PICA founts and can print from 5 to 17 characters per inch. 
Prints at 105 c.p.s and even dumps hi-res screens — great 
PIE CHARTS with T-GRAPH. Built-in 2K buffer. Originally 
sold at £369. Ring for a sample printout. 

£289 TOSHIBA 360K DISK + 20 
£339 TOSHIBA 360K DISK + 80 
£359 TOSHIBA 360K DISK + 100 

The Toshiba disks are far faster than any other 3.5in MSX 
DISK unit. Each drive is also supplied with our MSX SUPER 
COPY transfer program. 


N.B.: PACKAGE DEALS WHICH SAY + 20 INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS: TYPING TUTOR, TEACH MATHS, 
SMASHOUT, VICIOUS VIPER, MSX OTHELLO, SKI GATE CRASHER, CAVE ADVENTURE, SOLITAIRE, GRAPHS, 
FRENZY etc . 

+ 80 DEALS INCLUDE ALL ABOVE + MONACO GRAND PRIX, JUNIOR ANGLER, TEACH TABLES, GREEDY 
GREMLINS, NUCLEAR REACTOR + KNIGHT COMMANDER, MACHINE CODE, ASSEMBLER, DISASSEMBLER, STOCK 
CONTROL, ACCOUNTS ETC. 

+ 100 DEALS INCLUDE ALL ABOVE + TURBO DATABASE, KNIGHT ARTIST, T-GRAPH ETC 


SOFTWARE 


KNIGHT COMMANDER adds 40 commands to Basic 
but leaves full memory free. Deletes spaces, Links 
lines, Recovers New’ed Programs, Dumps 
Variables, Searches for ?, Saves Pictures, Prints 
Screens, Displays Time, 26 new defined keys, 
flashing cursors etc. The Compressor alone Saves lots 
of memory & makes programs run faster! £15 

EXPERT MACHINE CODE: create or modify any 
machine code program. Great for making security 
copies of code programs £15 

KNIGHTS EASY ASSEMBLER, DISASSEMBLER 
EDITOR. Dis-assemble, modify & re-assemble ab- 
solutely anything! £15 

COMMANDER, MACHINE CODE, ASSEMBLER/ 
DIS-ASSEMBLER: All three 

DATABASE, ACCOUNTS, STOCK CONTROL 

three 


TURBO DATABASE 1000: written in machine code to 
use all the MSX memory! Create your own file format & 

then watch how fast it searches! £25 

FORECASTING ACCOUNTS: user defines account 
names & financial year, displays information in neat 

graphs & tables £25 

STOCK CONTROL: instant price & stock level of any 
item, very fast search, up to 9,999 items per category. 

Tape, QD or DISK £25 

KNIGHT ARTIST: an easy to use graphic program 
which is supplied with 8 sample pictures. Tape & 

QD £8 

KNIGHT T-GRAPH: sorts and sums data and then 
displays it in PIE or BAR GRAPHS. Saves to tape, QD 

or 360K disk £10 

SPECIAL OFFER: Machine Code* Assembler, 

Commander, Stock Control, Accounts, Database, T- 
GRAPH, and KNIGHT ARTIST — all eight for £69 


ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT — All software post free. £9 carriage & insurance on each micro, disk or printer 


Access 



KNIGHTS (established 1937) 

108 Rosemount Place, Aberdeen AB2 4YW 


8ARCLAYCARD 


V7£4 


TELEPHONE OUR INFORMATION HOT LINE (0224) 630526 WITH ACCESS & VISA ORDERS 






mmm 


CHESS ON THE MSX NEVER 
BEEN THIS REALISTIC 


p\us many, ™ a Y h to tournamen P 

re assjaass 


Stranded light yean from earth Rocket Roger must explore 
the mystery planet in search of the power crystals that will 
recharge his spacecraft, T^ke control as Roger 
manoeuvres with his Jet pack avoiding the 
nasties, destroy ing his enemies. 


Alllgata Software Ltd 
1 Orange Street. Sheffield SI 4DW 
Tel: 755796 

MSX- MSX- MSX 'MSX' 


MSX- MSX 


MSX- MSX- MSX- MSX- MSX- MSX- MSX- MSX 


EAST LONDON’S MSX 
SOFTWARE CENTRE 

IF IT’S MSX COMPUTER 
GAMES YOU WANT, 
THEN CALL AT: 

MELODYMAN 

280 BARKING ROAD 
PL Al STOW, LONDON 

E138HR 

Tel: 01-476 5580 

BUS STOP RIGHT OUTSIDE 

BUSES NOS: 

5, 1 5, 40, 56, 58 


MSX TAKING OFF 
IN AUSTRALIA 

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE 
MANUFACTURERS REQUIRING 

DISTRIBUTION 

CONTACT: 

MSX COMPUTER AND SOFTWARE 

1 1 BRADPOLE ROAD 
ELIZABETH WEST 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA 5113 

Tel: 01061 8255 6738 
Telex: AD 288 

GROUND FLOOR OPPORTUNITY 











f the response to our 
recent competitions is 
anything to go by, Yama- 
ha, Star and Hisoft are 
favourite names among MSX 
Computing readers. 

In the June/July issue we ran 
two competitions. Sally Bloom- 
field of Glenochil Village in 
Scotland is the winner of a Star 
NL10 printer. She correctly 
identified the ‘bugs’ printed in 
the magazine — they were of 
course prime numbers. 

The second competition in 
the same issue was to win one 
of twelve Hisoft programming 
packages by telling us the 
number of books and maga- 
zines scattered on an untidy 
desktop. This one proved a little 
harder to crack, but the correct 
answer was nineteen. 

The six Devpac MSX win- 
ners are Leo Mescia of Hen- 
don, A.R. Edwards of Bexhill- 
on-Sea, Roger Adlard of Hod- 


desdon, C. Ogunremi of Big- 
gleswade, Andrew Bamford of 
Huthwaite Sutton in Ashfield, 
and Jim McAreavy from Newry, 
County Down. Winners who 
expressed a preference for 
Pascal MSX were S. Lewis of 
Milford Haven, Karyn-Ann Mar- 
shall of South Croydon, B. 
Strzelecki of Tewkesbury, 
Daren Sangeelee of Edin- 
burgh, Wilson Aitken of Alloa, 
and Mark Liu of Virginia Water. 

In the October/November 
issue, we asked you to write a 
software review. 

Frankly we expected a fairly 
limited response to this — in 
general, the number of entries 
goes down as the competition 
becomes harder to enter. But 
you did us proud, with over 
1 000 entries, many of very high 
standard. Thank you for your 
efforts. The winner of the mag- 
nificent 128K Yamaha CX5M II 
is Karl Wilson, of Whitehaven. 










* 




SKIPPY 

This game featured in the October/November issue of MSX 
Computing was wrongly attributed to David McQuiston. I n fact the 
program was written by two of Mr. Micro’s programmers, who 
included it The MSX Games Book, pu blished by Collins. Apologies 
to all concerned, and thanks to all those who took the trouble to let 
us know. Eagle-eye of the month award must however go to Peter 
Kay of Flixton who was the first to spot the problem. 

We are always glad to receive program listings from readers, but 
we must emphasize that anything you send in must be entirely your 
own work. Sending in someone else’s program in your own name 
can lead to breach of copyright. Don’t be tempted. 


This game is one of the best we’ve ever seen written in Basic for 
any computer. As the name suggests, your task is to fly the 
legendary Lancaster bomber through enemy fire and barrage 
balloons to reach your target. On your final approach to the dam, 
your height speed and timing must be spot on if your single 
bouncing bomb is to blow up the dam. 

Full instructions are included inthefirstofthetwo listings. Savethis 
first, then type in the second listing and save it on the cassette just 
after the end of the first program. 

This is an extremely difficult game to win. Ian offers the tip that 
adding one line to the second listing, 945 RETURN, will eliminate 
some of the flak damage effects and make life a little easier during 
your first attempts. All pound signs are # (SHIFT 3). 






REM *■ 
COLOR 


MBUSTERS ** 
[AM BR ADICK 


MID* (A* , x i 37) 

- J ,37> 
LifTHEN GOTO 140 

70 p, v YOUR LArs 
MJB TO TH flaK and 









A *= " WHO 

Kt DROP YOUF 

OY THE DAM WHICH 

factorys 

LOW '■ : A= 1 1 : GOSUB 1 on 

160 A$='*presS: 1 : - 

17: GOSUB 1 000 


Q II . /\ _ __ 

W&M La sA=17:Gnc;im 
Hl70 A*»« 

HI ION" : A=19: GOSUB 
^175 A*=INKEYS 

180 IF 1. 1 .. 

190 IF A$="2" 

If 200 GOTO 
| 210 CLSsi 
220 A*="£ 

I 00 

1230 A$= " 

loo 

| 240 A$=" 

| SLY 

|E MAY NOT 

* hat which 

; EXPLODE 
250 A*="YI 
K TOUCHES 
OR IF IT 
COCKp it » • 

260 AT=" i 
HE MORE 
OMES 

AT THE DAM 
LT « :A=l2 
gl 270 A$ s " ] 

1l ENGINES 
E LOST 

| CRASH ! : 

280 A$=" 

| A=2l : GOSUB 
| 290 IF INK 
I 300 CLS 
310 A$="STi 
}A=0: GOSUB 
1 320 AT= " 
j A=1 ■ GOSUB j 
’330 

ONS b 

AND HAVE 7 
EATH THEM-j 
340 AT=" 

FATAL, 

Y WITH 

CH : A=7: BOSUB 


THEN 1 75 
210 
500 


1 (FLAK) 


;.vXv.* 


tm?o WILL CONTI NUO 

INTO THE AIR, sqn 

YOUR height, but tS 

will automatically 

SUB 1000 

r /\ ijtt T _ 

-A HIT IF THE FLA ■ 
-? F THE AIRCRAFT, 

INFRONT of the 
IB 1000 Ml 

Y0U RECIEVE T 

»ble the plane BEC 
LYING and aiming ~" 
EXTREMELY difficu 


vt FOUR hits al 
ess and you hav 

THE PLANE WILL 
1000 

ESs SPACE BAR": 


CONTROL 
A— 17: GOSUB 


THEN 290 


BALLOONS) 


AVOID THE BALLC 

BEEN CUT LOOSE 

RS DANGLING BEts 
1000 

ION IS USUALLY 
-J MIGHT GET AW A 

E slightest tou 


GOSUB 1000 


11* 
















THEN 360 ELSE 370 


" : A=1 s GOSUB 


360 IF INKEY*<> 

365 AK „ ^ _ 

370 CLS: A*=" STAGE 3 (THE DAM)":A-0:G 

□SUB 1000 
380 A*="^ 

1000 

390 A*=" REDUCE YOUR SPEED UNTIL TH 
E GAUGE IS LEVEL WITH THE BLUE LINE 
ADJUST HEIGHT UNTIL THE TWO CIRCL 
ES OVERLAP AND TURN RED. 

":A=3: GOSUB 1000 

400 A*=" CHECK THE SIGHTS (BOTTOM R 
IGHT) TO SEE IF THE DAM EDGES (WH 
ITE BOX) ARE TOUCHING THE SIGHTS. W 
HEN THEY DOPRESS SPACE OR FIRE TO RE 
LEASE BOMB !":A=8:G0SUB 1000 

410 a*=" now sit back and watch to 

IF YOU HAVE BEEN ACCURATE, 
IF NOT YOU WILL BE TOLD WHERE YO 
U MADE THE MISTAKE": 

A=13: GOSUB 1000 

420 A*=" GENERAL FLYING" : A= 17: GOSUB 1 
000 

430 A*=" D0NT FLY 700 SL0W (STA 

LL) TOO FAST (OVERHEAT) 

0R ’ TOO LOW (CRASH) 

• ' " : A=18: GOSUB 1000 

440 A*=" PRESS SPACE BAR": 

A=2 1 : GOSUB 1000 

450 IF INKEY*<>" " THEN 450 ELSE 460 
460 CLS:A*=" CONTROL BY CURSOR 
JOYSTICK": A=0: GOSUB 1000 
470 a*=" (JP : - REDUCES HEIGHT* :A— 

5: GOSUB 1000 

480 A*="DOWN 

=9: GOSUB 1000 

490 A*="LEFT :- 

3: GOSUB 1000 

495 A*= " R I GHT : - 

17: GOSUB 1000 . 

500 A*=" PRESS SPACE BAR TO LOAD DAI 

BUSTERS" : A—21 : GOSUB 1000 
510 IF INKEY*-" " THEN CLO AD " DAMBUS " 

520 GOTO 510 _ 

1000 LOCATE O.AsFOR 1=1 TO LEN <A*> : B 
*=MID*(A*,I ,1) sPRINT ; CHR* (StHID) » 
:FOR J=0 TO 10: NEXT J sPRINT B*; : IF 

THEN NEXT I ELSE BEEP: FOR J-0 

TO 10: NEXT JsNEXT I 
1010 RETURN 


- INCREASES HEIGHT": A 
REDUCES SPEED" :A= 


INCREASES SPEED" :A= 


150 IF 2=0 AND PLAY ( 1 ) =0 THEN GOSUB 
3490 

160 GOSUB 2000 
GOSUB 1780 

IF Z>0 THEN PUT SPRITE2 , ( C , 154) , 

PUT SPRITE7, (C+20, 156) ,6,4 
PUT SPRITE8, (C-50, 170) ,6,4 
PUT SPRITE9, (G, 140) ,6,5 
PUT SPRITE10, (G+100, 142) ,6,5 
IF Z<1 THEN G0T0250 
GOSUB 1590 

C=C— 4: IF C< =0 THEN C=255: D=0: Z=Z 


l 1 


IF Z=8 THEN GOTO 310 
G=G— 2 
GOSUB 940 

IF T I ME > 1 00 AND TIME<200 THEN GO 
3490 

GOTO 130 

REM ****** GAME £2 ******** 

320 RESTORE 1580: D=1 : L=1 : C ( 1 ) =C+ 100: 

Y (2) =—36 

330 GOSUB 3490 

PUT SPR I TE3, (-20,-20) 

PUT SPRITE2, (-20,-20) 

SPRITE* (3) =SPR* (6) 

SPRITE* (6) =SPR* (16) 

GOSUB 2000 
GOSUB 1780 
SPRITE OFF 

PUT SPRITE 0, (X,Y) ,14 
PUT SPRITE 1 , <X+16,Y) ,14 
PUT SPRITE7, (C+20, 156) ,6,4 
PUT SPRITE8, (C-50, 170) ,6,4 
PUT SPRITE9, (G, 140) ,6,5 
PUT SPRITE10, (G+100, 142) ,6,5 
IFD= 1 THEN GOSUB 1520 
PUT SPRITE11, (C,Y(1) ) ,4,3 
PUT SPRITE12, (C,Y(1)+17) ,4,6 
PUT SPR ITE 13 , (C(l) ,Y(2)) ,5,3 
PUT SPRITE14 , (C(l) ,Y(2)+17) ,5,6 
SPRITE ON 

C=C— 4: IF C<=— 16 THEN C=255:D=1 
C ( 1 ) =C ( 1 ) —4: IF C ( 1 ) <=-16 THEN C< 
5: D= 1 
G=G— 2 

ON SPRITE GOSUB 1460 
GOSUB 940 
GOTO 380 

REM ***** GAME£3 ****** 

PUT SPRITE 1 1 , (-20,-20) ,0: PUT SP 


(- 20 ,- 20) ,0 


t (. 7) : SPRITE* (6) =S 


610 SPRITE*( 14)=: 

PR*( 14) 

620 SPRITE* (4) =SPR* (8) : SPRITE* (5) =SP 
R* (9) : SPRITE* (7) =SPR* (5) : SPRITE* (8) = 
SPR* (15) 

630 BU=2 : SP=+3 : Z=0 : L=2 
GOSUB 870 

PUT SPRITEO, (X,Y) , 14 
PUT SPRITE1, <X+16,Y) ,14 
GOSUB 2000 
GOSUB 1780 

IF TIME >75 AND TIME<100 THEN GOS 
3490 

700 PUT SPRITE7, (C+20, 156) ,6,7 
710 PUT SPRITE8, (C-50, 170) ,6,7 
720 PUT SPRITE9, <G, 140) ,6,8 




730 PUT SPRITE10, (G+100, 142) ,6,8 
740 IF C=127 THEN Z=Z+1: GOSUB 840 
750 C=C-4: IF C<=0 THEN C=255: Z=Z+1 : G 

□SUB 840 
760 G=G— 2 

770 IF Z=10 THEN GOSUB 3030 
780 IF Z >7 THEN GOSUB 1030 
790 IF STRIG ( JYK) =-l AND BOMB< 1 THfcN 
B0MB=1: X (3) =X : Y ( 1 ) =Y : GAP=190-Y 
800 IF B0MB=1 THEN GOSUB 1270 
810 IF Z<2 THEN GOSUB 2650 
820 GOSUB 940 
830 GOTO 640 

840 REM ****TOWER VIEW***** 

850 LINE( 164- (Z*2) ,26) - ( 164+ ( Z*2) ,26 
+Z/2) , 15, BF 
860 RETURN 

870 REM ****** CIRCLES ****** 

880 X (l)=75+(Y/4) 

890 X (2) =130- ( Y/4) 

900 FOR 1=1 TO 2 

910 PUTSPR I TE 1 4+ I , ( X ( I ) , 24 ) , 13+1 , 14 

920 NEXT I 
930 RETURN 

940 REM ***** UNSTEADY ***** 

950 IF LOl AND HIT=0 THEN RETURN 
960 U=RND < 1 > : U= I NT ( 3*U+ 1 ) 

970 IF U=1 THEN Y=Y+HIT 
980 IF U=2 THEN Y=Y-HIT 
990 IF LOl THEN RETURN 
1000 IF U=1 THEN Y ( 1 ) =Y ( 1 ) +1 : Y (2) =Y ( 
2) -2 

1010 IF U=3 THEN Y ( 1 ) =Y ( 1 ) -1 : Y (2) =Y ( 
2) +2 

1020 RETURN 

1030 REM ***** DAM ***** 

1040 PUT SPRITE 4 , (C+2 , 164) , 14 
1050 PUT SPRITE 5, (C, 152), 14 
1060 LINE (C+8, 159) — (C+16, 170) , 12, BF 
1070 RETURN 

1080 REM ****** SPLASH ***** 

1090 T=255: GOSUB 3410 
1100 FOR 1=1 TO 100 

1110 IF I>0 AND I< 15 THEN SPRITES(6) 
=SPRS(12) 

1120 IF I >14 AND I <30 THEN SPRITES (6 
) =SPRS (11) 

1130 IF I >29 AND I<50 THEN SPRITES (6 
) =SPRS (10) 

1140 IF I >49 AND I<80 THEN SPRITES (6 
) =SPRS (11) 

1150 IF I >79 THEN SPRITES (6) =SPRS ( 12 
) 

1160 PUT SPRITE 6, (X (3) , 150) , COL 
1170 NEXT 

1180 IF BA=1 THEN GOSUB 1350 ELSE GO 
TO 3030 

1190 REM ****** BOMB HIT?******** 
1200 IF Z<9 THEN BA=-1 : C0L=7: PIT=1 
1210 IF Z >9 THEN BA=-1 : C0L=1 1 : PIT=2 

5 

1220 IF Z=9 AND C<X(3)-2 THEN BA=-1: 
C0L=1 1 : PIT=25 

1230 IF Z=9 AND C>X (3) +9 THEN BA=-1: 
C0L=7: PIT=1 

1240 IF BU=5. 5 AND Z=9 AND C>X (3) -2 
AND C<X(3)+12 THEN BA=1:C0L=7 
1250 GOSUB 1080 
1260 RETURN 


, 

oj /jOliOCiw.w.WV'A 

:■ ' 

m pi mmm 

— • 

mBlm 

mmm 

1270 

:,y <: 

1280 

. 

: .1C- 

1290 

•Y,Y ■ 

• :;v i 
x;.y-o, .. 

• 

Y:.-: .. 

1300 
5: T=7 
1310 
1320 


Tn 4 4 


5:PIT=1: GOSUB 3410 


AND Y ( 1 ) >= 1 50 THEN GO 


mmm 


1330 

1340 

1350 

1360 

1370 

1380 

1390 

1400 

1410 

1420 

1430 

1440 

1450 

1460 

1470 

1480 

1490 


- ' -0 


..... . ... 

. 




PUT SPRITE6 , (X(3) ,Y(1) ) ,15 
RETURN 

REM ****** FLOOD ***** 

GOSUB 3550 
SPR I TES ( 6 ) =SPRS (13) 

FOR I=C TO 255 STEP 4 
LINE ( I , 159)- (1-4, 169) ,4,BF 
PUT SPRITE 6, (1-12, 157) , 15,6 
FOR J=0 TO 20: NEXT J 
NEXT I 
GOTO 3030 

PUT SPRITE6, (X (3) , Y(l> > , 15 
RETURN 

REM *****HIT BALLOON ****** 

IF Y >= 1 28 THEN RETURN 
SPRITE OFF 

IF Y< 128 AND HIT<4 THEN HIT=HIT 
+1: GOSUB 1740 
1500 SPRITE ON 
RETURN 

REM ***** BARRAGE BALLOONS 




C= 


jj 


THEN READ Y(l) 


1540 


fwm 


1560 

1570 

1580 


1600 
1610 
1620 
1630 
1640 
1 650 


' ;• • > '•*; 




'• :w; ; 


... .V 


IF C ( 1 ) =255 THEN READ Y (2) 

D=0 

IF Y ( 1 ) =0 THEN 590 
RETURN 

DATA 60,100,80,67,47,89,56,70,5 
6 , 49 , 99 , 68 , 88 , 67 , 1 00 , —36 , —36 , 0 , O 
1590 REM****** FLAK ******* 

IF D=1 THEN GOTO 1650 
F= 1 54 

E=RND < 1 ) : E=INT ( 134*E) +20 
SPRITES (3) =SPRS (2) 

D=1 : 1=154— E 

1=1-2: IF I<=0 OR F-8<=Y THEN GO 
TO 1690 

1660 PUT SPRITES, (C-l ,F-8) , 14 
F=F— 10*( 1/100) 

RETURN 

REM ***** EXPLODE ***** 

SPRITES (3) =SPRS (4) 

PUT SPRITES, (C,F-8) , 15 
T = 100: PIT=25: GOSUB 3410 
IF F >Y— 1 6 AND F<Y+16 AND C<X+32 
OX-16 AND H I T < 4 THEN HIT=HIT+1 
GOTO 1760 

PSET (52+ ( 15*HIT) ,7) 

, " 0 " 


1670 

1680 

1690 

1700 

1710 

1720 

1730 

AND 

ELSE 

1740 
NT £1 




COLOR 6: PR I 


1750 

1760 

1770 

1780 

1790 

1800 

1810 

1820 

AND 

1830 

1840 


IF HIT=4 THEN CRA=1 
D=0 

RETURN 

REM***** REV CHECK 
IF REV >60 THEN BEEP 


HEAT=HEAT+i 
THEN Y=Y+2: 

THEN CRA= 1 

AND REV<61 AND HEAT>0 
CRA< 1 THEN HEAT=HEAT— 1 
IF HEAT=20 THEN CRA=1 
IF CRA= 1 THEN Y=Y+4 


REVC30 
REV< 10 
REV >29 












:; y , x - S: 


csvr-.xS : 









RETURN 

REM ****** CRASH ******* 

PUT SPRITE3, (-20,-20) ,0 
IF HEAT=20 DR Y>=154THEN GOTO 1 


1850 
1 860 
1870 
i880 
960 
1890 
1900 
1910 
1920 
1930 
1940 
1950 
1960 
PRS(4) 

1970 
1980 
1990 
2000 
2010 
2020 
2030 
2040 
2050 
2060 
2070 
0 2110 
2080 IF 
0 2110 
2090 IF 
0 2110 
2100 IF 

2110 L I NE ( 200 , 8 ) - ( 240 ,13) , 1 , BF 
2120 IF REV >29 AND REV<61THEN COLOR 
12 ELSE COLOR 6 

2130 LINE (200,8) -(200+ (REV/2) ,13) , , 


PIT=25: T=200: GOSUB 3410 
FOR 1=0 TO 400: NEXTI 
GOTO 3030 

REM *****MOVEMENT ****** 
A=0: A=STICK ( JYK) 

IF A=0 THEN GOTO 2140 
IF A=1 THEN Y=Y+2: GOTO 
IF A=3 THEN REV=REV+1:G 
IF A=5 THEN Y=Y-2: GOTO 
IF A=7 THEN REV=REV-1:G 
IF A=2 THEN Y=Y+2:REV=R 




THEN 


Y=Y— 2: REV=REV+1 : GOT 


LAKE *****.jf.. N 
i9)-(C+4, 170) , 

DATA ****** 
20,120,72,111 
*°*0,0,0, 16,8 
i 1 42 , 254 ,0,0, 


THEN 


5*143,119 
2700 DATA 


J 224 , 80 , 94 , 253 
H 2710 DATA 0,0 

I ^ ’ o,o, 0,0, 0,0 
0 

-j 2720 DATA 1 , 2 
, 63, 63, 63, 63, < 

J 28, 128, 192, 16< 

12730 DATA 1,3C 

J 64 , 49 , 78 , 50 ,11 

j *03, 194, 164,2E 
I O 

j 2740 DATA 0,2, 

I 3 , 33, 1,1, 1,1,3 

j 8*54,65,128, 12 
j 2750 DATA 31,6 
J 191 *159,64,64, 
1,215,255,247, 

4 0*0 

2760 DATA 3,15 
j 127,63,63,31,1! 

j 8 , 220 , 206 , 238 , ; 

10,192,0,0 
I 2770 DATA 25,25 

I ,23, 19, 19, 19, IS 

4.104. 104.104. 1 
» 200 ,216, 240 
2780 DATA 5,7,5 
1*1*1* 64 , 1 92 , 64 

8. 128.192.192. 1 

2790 DATA 0,3,1 
1 » 69 , 39 , 6 , 67 , 1 

236,217,176,164 

08,192 


2140 IF REV<=0 THEN REV=0: GOSUB 1860 
2150 IF Y > 1 40 THEN GOSUB 1860 
2160 IF Y<45 THEN Y=45 
2170 X=REV*2 

2180 IF L<2 THEN GOTO 2200 

2190 IF Y=109 OR Y=110 THEN PUT SPRI 

TE14, ( X ( 1 ) ,24) ,6, 14 ELSE PUT SPRITE1 

4, (X (1) ,24) ,0,14 

2200 RETURN 


2220 RESTORE 2680 
2230 FOR A=0 TO 16 
2240 FOR B=1 TO 32 
2250 READ AS 

2260 SPRS ( A ) =SPRS ( A ) +CHRS ( VAL (AS) ) 
2270 NEXT B 
2280 NEXT A 
2290 RETURN 

2300 REM ***** SET UP SPRITES ***** 
2310 SPRITES (0) =SPRS (O) 

2320 SPRITES ( 1 ) =SPRS ( 1 ) 

2330 SPRITES (2) =SPRS (3) 

2340 SPRITES (3) =SPRS (2) 

2350 SPRITES (4) =SPRS (5) 

2360 SPR I TES ( 5 ) =SPRS (15) 

2370 RETURN 

2380 REM ***** SET UP SCREEN ***** 
2390 COLOR 15,1,1:CLS 
2400 LINE (0,150) -(255, 191) ,12,BF 
2410 L I NE (0,151)— ( 255 , 1 5 1 ) , 3 
2420 L I NE (0,1 53 ) — ( 255 , 1 53 ) , 3 
2430 L I NE (0,1 57 ) — ( 255 , 1 57 ) , 3 
2440 L I NE (0,1 65 ) — ( 255 , 1 65 ) , 3 





B M-WUW 1 ' 1 


ttM! 


. OR FLAK ! '• 

2950 

150 IF HEAT >=20 THEN PRINT: A$ 
ENGINES WERE RUN TOO FAST FOR 
TOO LONG AND OVERHEATED I " : Gi 




DATA 0,4,41 


5.15. 85 .6.2. 42 .2.0. 32 . 0 . 36 , , 1 *?•*■ ? 

, 222 , 182,110,80,164,102,194,192,20 
2810 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0,8,2,40,64,7, 
, 73 , 37 , 23 ,7 ,0,0, 0,0, 0,0, 68 , 66 ,9,19 
48,210,18,106,168,0 

2820 DATA 0,1,6,24,161,66,68,21,32 
, 101,0,0,0,0,0,224,16,40,168,8,84, 

2.52.72.128.0. 0.0.0.0.0 

2830 DATA 0 , 0 , O ,0,0,0, 1,3,3, 1, 0 , 0 , 
0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , O , O , 0 ,0,128,192,192,128, 


3160 IF REVC10 THEN PRINT 
RE FLYING THE AIRCRAFT TO 
IT STALLED AND CRASHED ! 


2840 DATA 0,0,0,2,1,10,4,7,9 
, 0 , O , 0 ,0,0,0, 1 44 , 1 60 , 64 , 1 60 , 
60,128,123,192,0,0,# 

2850 DATA 8,8,6, 1,0, 0,0, 0,0, 
0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , O , 0 , 128, 96 ,16,8,8,8, 


3190 PRINT : A$="THE BOMB MISSED 
R,I NT : GOSUB 2950 

3200 IF GAP <80 THEN PRINT: PRINT 
YOU WERE FLYING TOO LOW ! ” 

B 2950 

3210 IF GAP >85 THEN PRINT: PRINT 
YOU WERE FLYING TOO HIGH!" 


AT=" 

GOSU 


■Rl 


It 


A$=" 

GOSU 


3220 IF REV >30 THEN PRINT: A$ 
OU WERE FLYING TOO FAST" ELS 
<30 THEN A$= M 
TOO SLOW" 

3230 IFREV<30 OR 
OSUB 2950 
3240 IF Z<8 THEN 




PRINT : PRINT : A$=" 
1 RELEASED THE BOMB MUCH TOO EARLY 
GOSUB 2950 

\v 

3250 IF Z=9 AND C<X<3> THEN PRINT 
I INT:A$=" YOU RELFASFD THF Rfl 


C>X (3) +9 THEN PRINT: 
YOU RELEASED THE BOM 
A LITTLE TOO EARL 


— OR ANOTHER ATTEMPT. ": 
3290 GOTO 3280 

3300 PRINT : PRINT : A$="W 

- RATULATIONS NNNNNNNNNN 
3310 PR I NT : PR I NT : A$= " 

D THE MOEHNE DAM AND 

4 VALLEY 

E DEMOLISHED 


i:l 3030 

llll 3040 
WM 3050 
: 3060 


THE FACTORYS 

GOSUB 2950 
3320 PRINT : PRINT : PRINT : A$ 
IPLETED, WELL DONE 
GOTO 3270 
END 

REM *** CONTROLS 
COLOR 15,1,1: CLS 
J YK=0: GOTO 80 
COLOR 15, 1,1: CLS 
J YK=1 : GOTO 80 
RETURN 

REM *** EXPLOSION 
SOUND 2,255: SOUND 
SOUND 6, PIT: SOUND 
SOUND 9,11 
SOUND 10,31: SOUND 
SOUND 1 2, T: SOUND 
TIME=0 


" MISS 10 

GOSUB 2950 


3360 

3370 

3380 

3390 

3400 

3410 

3420 

3430 

3440 

3450 

3460 

3470 


SOUND *** 

3, 15 

7 , &B1001 1 101 


3130 PRINT 

3140 IF HIT=4 THEN PRINT: A$ 
U RECIEVED TOO MUCH DAMAGE 




Mis 


mm 
















100 Main pruy 
110 MAXFILES=3 
1 20 GOSUB 3140 
130 X=1:Y=1:0N 
TRIG(J) on 
140 P=STICK(J) 
150 X=X+V<P,1> 

! 160 V=Y+V(P,2) 
1170 GOSUB 220 
180 PUT SPRITE 


TRY LOADING 


11® 

^ : 


move 
cursor 
Check range 
(X*12-2, (Y* 


40 : NEXT N 'delay 


FOR N=1 TO 

GOTO 140 
'Check that cousor 
IF X >S I ZE THEN X = 1 
IF X< 1 THEN X^SIZE 
IF Y>S I ZE THEN Y=1 
IF Y< 1 THEN Y=SI ZE 
RETURN 

'Reverse single b: 
STRIG(J) OFFsGOSUl 


■ 




was 


( v \ ■ 


GOSUB 220 Ch 
IF SIZE = 16 
N=FNA ( T8 , X , Y ) 
IF N= 1 THEN E 

f- 1 ) -2 A ‘ (8-X) 

IF N =o THEN £ 
/-i 'i +2~ (8-X) 


(L16) '1 ength 
MID$(A$,6)=" 
MID$ (A$,6)=" 


FOR OUTPUT AS 


PRINT£3,A$ 

FOR N=1 TO L8*8 

PRINT£3,S(N) 
NEXT N 


3480 RETURN „ 

3490 REM **** P b A oni IND U 1° 1' 
3500 SOUND 0, 25 SOUND 

3510 SOUND 7, 188s SOUND 8,21 

3520 SOUND 9,11:S0UND 

3530 SOUND 12,1: SOUND 13,1 

3 I 50 rI™**~* FLOOD sound 

3560 SOUND 6,5 

1 3570 SOUND 7 , ScBlOl 101 1 1 
3580 SOUND 8,&B0001 111 1 
3590 SOUND 11,25 
3600 SOUND 12,5 
3610 SOUND 13,13 
3620 


msm 


By A. Fedyn 


Our first reaction to this program was ‘oh no, not again!’ But this 
sprite editor rises above the pack by offering a very wide range of 
features, enabling you to create sprites of various sizes and save 
them on cassettes for later use. It is also very easy to use, with clear 
instructions and logical use of the keyboard and screen. All pound 
signs are # (SHIFT 3). 




asp 




STRIG(J) 
RETURN 
'End of 
'Thi 


ON 


G0SUB3500 


mai n 
the 


PRINTfl , 
exit 
OPEN 


CAS 


470 
480 
IMS 490 
500 
510 


O 


1 ii 

wm 








INPUT £3,C$ 

PRINTfl," Title ="; RIGHTS <C$, 10) 
PRINT £1," O.K.? (Y/N) " 

GOSUB 1030 'string input 
IF LEFT$(B$,1)="N"0R LEFT$(B$,1) 
THEN 420 

PRESET ( 150,70) : PRINT £1," Please 
t" 

L8=VAL(MID$ (C$, 1,2) ) 

FOR N=1 TO L8*8 
INPUT £3,N1 
S (N)=N1 
NEXT N 

L 1 6= VAL (MI D$ ( C$ ,3,2) ) 

FOR N=1 TO LI 6* 16 
INPUT £3,N1 
B (N) =N1 
NEXT N 

IF MID$ ( C$ ,6,1)= "8*' THEN SIZE=8 
IF M I D$ ( C$ ,6,1)= "6" THEN SIZE=16 


main prog 


2 




m 




L. 




■ 


mm 

S 

mm 


m I 

r ' 

ly.Vv-' 


Kww.vj 

f . 


GOSUB 2830 ‘ 

ON ERROR GOTO 0 
RETURN 

'error handling 
PR I NT £ 1 , CHR$ (13) 

GAIN (Y/N)" 

710 CLOSE £3 

720 GOSUB 1030 'string input 
730 H=2 

740 IF LEFT $ ( B$ , 1 ) = " Y " 

) = "y" THEN H=1 
750 IF H=1 THEN RESUME 
RESUME 650 

'This is the Save routine 
GOSUB 2760 'Isolate main 


OR 


420 


(B$, 1 


Prog 


PRINT£1 , " What title do you want 


y 


PRINT£1 , 
GOSUB 1030 
PRINT 
PRINT 


II II 


2 string input 
tape (Record) ,a 


RETURN" 

GOSUB 2300 'Wait tor r 
PRINT£1," Please wait" 
A$= M 

MID$ (A$, 1 ) =STR$ (L8) ' 
MID$(A$,3)=STR$(L16) 

IF SIZE=8 THEN 
IF SI ZE=16THEN 
MID$ (A$,7)=B$ 

OPEN "cas: sprite" 


m 


prog 

Load routine 
ON ERROR GOTO 690 
GOSUB 2760 'Isolate main prog 

Start tape — CTRL+STOP 


*48 


. 

$ 

1 


ite" FOR INPUT AS £ 




MM 


iii 












•WAV.VOAV/ 

fra 






mm 




4424.' 




Mmm 

Mmm 









mmsM k. 

.1 I 


■' #<• i 


HS!S5 


mmk 

I 970 



* 

M 



/XsrivV'-j'X' 

Missile 

N=1 TO LI 6* 16 


•': : :-iy . ' : 


FOR 

980 PRINT£3,B (N) 
990 NEXT N 


r?Ws*?S 

M 


"*:*X 


1000 

1010 

1020 

1030 

1040 

1050 


m 


CLOSE £3 

GOSUB 2830 ' Recover main prog 
RETURN 

'screen 2 string input 
COLOR 15,4,4 

B$= " " : RR I NT £ 1 , " >" ;:F0R N=1T0 


i 0: NEXT N 

•w&S 


■I 


E : | wa 





m 

■ i 




: 

||||t 

lliiilfl 

rs ? 

wm 

a:-,.: n 

mm 


til 




H 


> 




. 






1060 
1070 
1080 
1090 
1 100 
1110 
1 120 
1130 
1140 
1150 

1160 

1170 

1180 
1 1 90 


A$=INK 

IF A$=CHR$(13) THEN 1120 
B$=B$+A*: PRINT£1 , A$; 

IF LEN(B$>>6 THEN 1120 
GOTO 1060 
PRINT £1,CHR$(13> 

RETURN 

' Here in 1 i es th 
GOSUB 2760 'isoi 
COLOR 15,4,4 
CLS. 

Z = 1 'Ask -for prin 
GOSUB 2450 

IF SI ZE=8 AND NOL8 THEN 1240 
IF SI ZE=16AND NOL16THEN 1240 
PRINT £1 , "Number too large 
FOR N=1 TO 300: NEXTN 


code routine 
maid prog 


number 


»• 



Z=0: GOSUB 


GOTO 1190 
CLS: PRESET (0 ,0) 

Z=1 : N=N-1 

IF SI ZE=8 THEN GOSUB 
IF SI ZE=16THEN GOSUB 
IF S I ZE=16 THEN A*=A$+B$ 

IF H=0 THEN 1320 

PRINT£2, "The code -for sprite 


1830 
1 940 


li 







PRINT£2, " " 
PRINT£1 , " 


The code -for sprite 


i? li 





1370 






) 




'im 


PRINT£ 1 , 

FOR N= 1 TO LEN(A$) 
C$=MID$(A$,N, 1) 

D$=MID$ (A$ ,N+1 , 1 ) 

IF H=0 THEN 1400 
1380 PR I NT £2 , N ; " > " ; ASC < 
;HEX$(ASC(C*> ) 

1390 PRINT£2, N+l ; " > " ; ASC(D$) ; " 
h " ; HE X $■ ( ASC ( D$ ) ) 

1400 PRESET (2, (N-l) *4-s-16) 
PRINT£1 ,N; " ) " ;ASC(C$) 
PRESET (70, (N-l>*4+16> 
PRINT£1 , " , 8«h " ; HEX$ (ASC ( 


2<h 


K-.v 


5' 


i i 








111 ' 






11 II 







PRESET (113, ( N— 1 ) *4+16) 


m 




1410 
1420 

1430 PRINT£1 , " .&h":HEX:*(ASC(C$> ) 

1440 

1450 PRINT £i , N+l ; " ) " ; ASC (D$) 

PRESET ( 180 , (N-l ) *4+16) 

PRINT£1 , " ,8th"; HEX* (ASC(D$> ) 

NEXT N 

GOSUB 2300 'Wait -for ret key 
GOSUB 2830 'Recover main prog 
RETURN 

'This is the size swap routine 
GOSUB 2760 'Isolate main prog 
IF SI ZE=16 THEN SIZE=8:G0T0 156 


IF SI ZE=8 THEN SIZE=16 'size 
GOSUB 2830 'Recover main prog 


1570 RETURN 


:■ V ■ 


MtMmm 


. 










2230 PR I NT £ 1 , M I D$ ( B$ , X , 1 ) 

2240 NEXT X 
2250 NEXT Y 
2260 IF Z=1 THEN 2290 
2270 GOSUB 2300 'Wait for ret key 
2280 GOSUB 2830 'Recover main prog 

2290 RETURN 
2300 PRESET ( 10, 175) 

ETURN" 

2310 A$=" 1” :A$= 

) THEN 2310 
2320 RETURN 
2330 'This is t 
2340 GOSUB 2760 


PR I NT £ 1 


INKEY$: IF A$OCHR$(13 


8 THEN N=T8 

16 THEN N=T 16 
Last on scree 


RETURN for last sprit 


2520 PRINTC1 


2530 PRESET (7, 40) :PRINT£1 
2540 A$= ,,,, :B$= ,,n 
2550 A$= INKEY* 

2560 IF A*=" "THEN 2550 
2570 IF A*=CHR*(13) THEN 
2580 IFASC (A*X480RASC (A4 


2590 PRINT£1,A*; 

2600 B*=B*+A* 

2610 GOTO 2550 

2620 IF B*=" "THEN 2650 

2630 N=VAL(B*) 

2640 IF N>30 OR N< 1 TH 

2650 PRINT £1 , " " 

2660 IF Z=0 THEN 2750 
2670 PRINT£1 , " List re 


(Y/N) > 


2680 PRINT£1 , " 
2690 A$="":H=2 
2700 A*=INKEY* 
2710 IF A*=""T 
2720 IF A*="Y" 
2730 IF A*="N" 
2740 IF H=2 TH 
2750 RETURN 
2760 'Disable 
2770 CLS 
2780 GOSUB 3540 

1 2790 STRIG(J) OFI 
2800 GOSUB 3520 
2810 PUTSPRITE O 
2820 RETURN 


THEN H=1 
THEN H=0 



2830 'Enable keys etc 

2840 GOSUB 3550 'x=xl etc 

2850 GOSUB 2890 'Matrix plot 

2860 GOSUB 3490 'Key on 

2870 STRIG ( J ) ON 
2880 RETURN 

2890 'draw an edit screen 

2900 CLS: COLOR 15,4,4 

2910 RESTORE 371 O' Get lables 

2920 X=1:Y=1:Z=0 

2930 FOR Y=1 TO 8 

2940 PRESET ( 195, Y*10) : READ A* 

2950 PRINT £1 ,Y;CHR*(29) ;A* 

2960 NEXT Y 

2970 'Matrix plot starts here 
2980 FOR X=1 TO SIZE 
2990 FOR Y=1 TO SIZE 

3000 'Secandary entry point (from 380 
3010 PRESET (X*12, (Y*12)— 10) 

3020 IF SI ZE=16 THEN 3060 
3030 IF FNA (T8 , X , Y) =1 THEN COLOR 1 
3040 IF FNA (T8,X,Y) =0 THEN COLOR 15 
3050 GOTO 3080 

3060 IF FNB (T16,X,Y)=1 THEN COLOR 1 
3070 IF FNB (T16.X.Y) =0 THEN COLOR 15 
3080 
3090 
3100 
3110 
3120 
3130 
3140 
G N 

3150 DIM S (248) ,B(496) ,V(8,2) 

3160 COLOR 15,4,4 

3170 OPEN "grp:" FOR OUTPUT AS £1 
3180 OPEN "lpt: " FOR OUTPUT AS £2 
3190 DEF FNA (T8 ,X,Y)=(S( (T8- 1 ) *8+ 


a=i:y=i Keturn to origin 

RETURN 

CLS: DEF I NT A— Z: DEFSNG A-B: DEFSN 


IF A$="y" OR A*="Y"THEN GOSUB 


& 5 : 


'*■* Define sprite *■* 
S*=" " ; RESTORE 3660 
FOR N=1 TO 32 
READ N1 

S*=S*+CHR*(N1) 

NEXT N 

SPRITE* (1)=S* 

RESTORE 3730 Joysti 
FOR N= 1 TO 8 
READ X , Y 
V(N, 1)=X 


3390 

3400 

3410 

3420 

3430 

3440 







□N: NEXT N 


Sprite Editor" 


By A.Fedyn" 


3470 NEXT N 

3480 GOSUB 2890 Matrix plot 
3490 ON KEY GOSUB 1520,2330,2030,158 
0,1130,420,770,2110 
3500 FOR N=1 TO 8 : KEY (N) 

3510 GOTO 3530 

FOR N=1 TO 7 : KEY (N) OFF: NEXT N 
RETURN 

X 1 = X : Y 1 =Y : RETURN 
X=X1:Y=Y1: RETURN 
WIDTH 37 : 

LOCATE ,4 
PRINT" 

PRINT" 

3600 PRINT: PRINT 
3610 PRINT" 

3620 PRINT" 

3630 PRINT: PRINT: PRINT 
3640 FOR N=1 TO 500: NEXT N: RETURN 
3650 'Data -for the cursor sprite 
3660 DATA 255,128,128,128,128,128,12 
8 1 28 

3670 DATA 128,128,128,255,0,0,0,0 
3680 DATA 240,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 
3690 DATA 16,16,16,240,0,0,0,0 
3700 'Lables -for the -function keys 
3710 DATA Size, Num. , Swap , View, Code, L 
oad , Save , Hel p 

3720 Vectors -for cursor or joystick 
3730 DATA 0 , -1 , 1 , -1 , 1 , 0 , 1 , 1 
3740 DATA 0, 1 , -1 , 1 , -1 , 0 , -1 , -1 
'Help text 

Sprite Editor" 

— > r 


ll 


3760 DATA 
3770 DATA 
3780 DATA " " 

3790 DATA "This program allows you t 

ll 


3800 

DATA 

n and 

ll 

3810 

DATA 

3820 

DATA 

grid 

• 1 

3830 

DATA 

e on" 
3840 

ll 

DATA 

3850 

DATA 

3860 

DATA 

3870 

DATA 

e) " 
3880 

DATA 

3890 

DATA 

3900 

DATA 

3910 

DATA 

d the " 

3920 

DATA 

ys or " 

3930 

DATA 

ect" 

3940 

DATA 


ll 


"element o-f the sprite 


ll 


n H 


"A cursor (the black 


ll 


you are 


ii 


"PAGE" 


"The 


ll 


ll 


is moved aroun 


with the cursor ke 


ick- When it is 


3940 DATA "pressing either space bar 


or 


ll 






3950 DATA "-fire button respectivly w 
ill" 

3960 DATA "change the colour o-f that 


ll 


3970 DATA "element" 


3980 DATA 
3990 DATA 
d by" 

4000 DATA 


II II 


"Other -functi 


cal le 


ll 


ll 


i on 
4010 DATA 
4020 DATA 
ibed " 
4030 DATA 
4040 DATA 
4050 DATA 
4060 DATA 
4070 DATA 
4080 DATA 


• l 


"Th 


ng one o-f the -funct 
( 1 - 8 ) . " 

■functions are descr 


"on the next 
"PAGE" 

" Function 1 — Size" 


ll 


ll 


"Thi 


or 




ze of" 

4090 DATA 
4100 DATA 
4110 DATA 
, "PAGE" 

4120 DATA 
4130 DATA 
4140 DATA 
4150 DATA "All 
dited. " 

4160 DATA 
h any" 


s the other 


si 


"spri te. " 
"ie. chang 


8x8 to 16x16" 
16x16 to 8x8" 


Function 2 - 


ll 


ll ll 


any 


Num. " 

. 

ite to b 


"Answer the prompt (>) wit 


4170 DATA 
4180 DATA 


"number between 1 and 30. " 


• ■ n 


4190 DATA 
up to" 
i 4200 DAT A 

I 

be" 


4210 DATA 


"Sprite Editor will all 


ow 


"30 of each size sprite to 


ll 


■ l 


i n memory 


any one time 







14220 
4230 
4240 
4250 
4260 


DATA 

DATA" 

DATA" 

DATA" 

DATA" 


" PAGE" 
Function 3 


Swap " 

i« 


ll 


The current 


■I 


spri 


is inve 


4270 DATA" That is each element is ch 
anged" 

4280 DATA" in colour . Black becomes w 
hite, " 

4290 DATA" and white becomes black" 
4300 DATA" PAGE" 

4310 DATA" Function 4 — View" 

4320 DATA" ■■ 

4330 DATA"" 

4340 DATA" All the sprites of the cur 

■ 1 W 

4350 DATA"si ze are displayed." 

4360 DATA"" 

4370 DATA" 8x8 sprites are shown magn 
i f i ed . " 

4380 DATA" 16x16 sprites are unmagnif 
i ed . " 

4390 DATA"" 

4400 DATA" Each sprite is shown again 
st its" 

4410 DAT A " n umber . " , "PAGE" 

4420 DATA " Function 5 — Code " 

4430 DATA " " 

4440 DATA " " 

4450 DATA "A list of the numbers tha 
t" 

4460 DATA "make up the specified spr 
ite, " 


W>Xyt s 

. • • 
•' six 

>: i 


:-.v : ' v. 

J: ; 


















4470 DATA 
oduced " 
4480 DATA 
4490 DATA 
and" 

4500 DATA 


4510 DATA "and may be dumped to a pr 


DATA "" 

DATA "Simply answer the prompt 


DATA 


DATA 


DATA 

DATA 

DATA 

DATA 

DATA 


4560 

4570 

4580 

4590 

4600 


DATA "read -form tape. When the 


4620 DATA 
nted . " 
4630 DATA 
abort " 
4640 DATA 


Pressing CTRL + STOP will 


4650 DATA 

am or " 

4660 DATA 

4670 DATA 

4680 DATA 

4690 DATA 

4700 DATA 

4710 DATA 
rns " 

4720 DATA 
4730 DATA 
title" 
4740 DATA 


is dumped to tape 
First you are ask 


which should be given a-ft 


the prompt (>) 
PAGE" 

Function 8 — 


4750 DATA 
4760 DATA 
4770 DATA 
4780 DATA 
4790 DATA 
4800 DATA 
4810 DATA 
4820 DATA 
or Sprite Editor program 
END" 



This game from Denmark puts you in control of a cannon which 
runs along a railway li ne out from your headquarters. Enemy tanks 
appear on your radar, and you have to destroy them before they 
reach your base. The program uses a machine-code routine 
poked in from Basic to give the horizontal scrolling effect — a 
mistake in the data lines here could crash the machine, so you 
must save the program on cassette before you attempt to run it. All 
pound signs are # (SHIFT 3). 




m 





f 





RtM TANK ATTACK 

20 REM BY JACOB LILDBALLE 

100 CLEAR200 ,61 439 ! : DEFINTA-Z: 0PEN”g 

r p : " AS£ 1 : I =RND ( -T I ME ) : ON I NTERVAL= 1 50 
GOSUB 1860 

110 C0L0R15, 1 , 1:SCREEN2, 2: GOSUB 1920; 
GOSUB 1620:1 NTER VALOFF : BEEP : COLOR , 4 
120 SV=1 : SC ! =0:LI=5: EX ! =5000 
130 TA=0: GOSUB 1470 
GOSUB 1230 
HE=0 : HR=0 

FS=0: X=760: S1=0: PUTSPRITE9 , (X/21 
+10, 10) , 15, 10 

170 F0RQ=1T02: G0SUB1050: NEXT 
REM * Move cannon * 

D=STICK(0) : E=STICK ( 1 > 

I FD=0ANDE=0THEN240 
I FD=30RE=3THEN340 
I FD=70RE=7THEN370 
PUTSPRITE9 , CX/21+10, 10) ,15,10 
IFS1=1 THEN290 

IFSTRIG (0) =OANDSTRIG ( 1 ) =0ANDSTRI 
G (3) =0THEN440 

260 I FSK >24THEN440 

270 Si=l : ST=39: SY=125: SX=1 27: SR=-9 
280 GOSUB 1 190: SK=SK+1: LINE (250,0) -(2 
50-SK>4,6) , 1 , BF 

290 SY=SY+SR: SR=SR+1 : ST=ST+ 1 
300 I FSR>— 1 THENSR=— 1 

310 IFST=54THENS1=0: G0SUB4OO; SX=256- 
SY=1 92 

320 PUTSPRITE1 , (SX , SY) ,6, ST/3 
G0T0440 

X = X+4: IFX>1600THENX=1600: G0T0240 
D=USRi (0) : SX=SX— 4: FX=FX-7 
G0T0230 

X=X-4: IFX<0THENX=0: GQT0240 
D=USR ( 0) : SX=SX+4: FX=FX+7 
G0T0230 

REM * Check bullit * 

FOR 1=1 T02 

I FX C I ) -X+ST (IX SX+4ANDSX+4< X ( I ) - 
X+15— ST ( I ) THEN940 
430 NEXT: RETURN 
440 REM * Move tanks * 

450 FOR 1=1 T02 

460 IFD ( I > = 1 THEN I F I NT ( RND ( 1 > *40)=1TH 
ENQ=I : GOSUB 1050ELSE570 
470 I FHE= 1 THEN670 
480 X(I)=X (I)-SV 
490 IPX ( I > <— 67THEN1310 
500 PUTSPR I TE6+ I, (X(I>/21+7,1 3-ST ( I ) 

> , 15, 1 7+ ( HE= 1 ) - ( I =2ANDHE= 1 ) *2 
510 IFX ( I > -XO150RX ( I ) -X>255THENT ( I ) 
=HE : PUTSPR I TE3+ I , ( 256 ,192) ,0,20: PUTS 
PRITE13, (256, 192) ,0,20: G0T0570 

520 I FT <I)=0THENIFINT(RND(l)*2O)=lAN 

DHE=OTHENT ( I ) =1 

530 IFINT (RND ( 1 ) *30) =1 ANDHE=OTHENT ( I 
) =0 

540 IFT ( I ) =1ANDINT (RND ( 1 ) *25) = 1 THENG 
0SUB640 

550 IFHE=1THENPUTSPRITE4 , (X (I)-X,69) 

, 1 ,8+(HR=-l) : PUTSPR I TE13, (X (I)-X,85) 
,1,11: G0T0570 

560 PUTSPR I TE3+ I , ( X ( I ) -X , 70 ) , 1 , ST ( I ) 
+ST ( I ) — 1 +T ( I ) 

570 I FFS=0THEN620 

580 FY=FY+FR: FR=FR+1 : F1=F1— 1 

590 IFFXCOORFX >255THENFS=0: FX=256: FY 
= 192 

























• •••?• 








600 I FF 1 =65- ( HE= 1 ) *3THENG0SUB730 
610 PUTSPRITE2, (FX,FY) , 1 ,Fl/5 

620 NEXT 
630 GOTO 180 
640 I FFS= 1 THENRETURN 

650 G0SUB1 190: FS=1 : FX=X ( I ) -X+4: Fl-89 
+ (HE=1 ) *3: FY=74: FR=-8- (HE=1 ) *4 
660 RETURN 

670 REM * Move helicopter * 

680 IFX >X ( 1 ) THENHR=1 
690 IFX+255< X ( 1 ) THENHR=— 1 
700 IFX ( 1 ) — X >OANDX ( 1 ) -X<255ANDINT (RN 
D ( 1 ) *20) =1THENHR=-HR 
710 X ( 1 ) =X ( 1 ) +HR* ( 1+SV) 

720 G0T0500 
730 REM * You die * 

740 FS=0: IFFX>2400RFX<15THENFX=100: F 

Y=84 

750 IFPOINT (FX , FY+7) =10ANDP0INT (FX+7 
FY+7 ) = 1 0THENFX=256 : F Y= 1 92 : RETURN 
760 FX=256: FY=192: PUTSPRITE2, (FX , FY) 
,0,20: GOSUB 1190 

770 LINE (40 , 40) - (215,48) ,12,BF: COLOR 
1 : PSET (79 ,41) ,12: PRINT £1 , "YOU WERE H 

IT" 

780 FOR J=1T050: COLOR, ,8 : F0RQ=1T040: N 
EXT: COLOR, , 1 : F0RQ=1T040: NEXTQ , J 
790 L I =L I - 1 : GOSUB 1 560 : I F L I =OTHENRETU 

RN830 

800 GOSUB 1600 

810 LINE (40,40) - (215,48) ,4, BF 

820 RETURN 

830 REM * Game over * 

840 GOSUB 1220 

850 S0UND7 , 56: PLAY"o5def de-f ge-f def dge 
■fdd" 

860 L I NE ( 24 , 33 ) — ( 23 1 , 63 ) ,6,BF:LINE(2 
6,35) -(229,61) , 1 , B: COLOR 1 : PSET (95,37 
) ,6:PRINT£1 , "GAME OVER" 

870 PSET (55,51 ) , 6 : COLOR 15: PR I NT£ 1 , "A 
NOTHER GAME (Y/N)?" 

880 IFSC ! >HS ! THENHS ! =SC ! : G0SUB1580 
FOR 1=1 T050 : K$= I NKE Y$ : NEXT 
K$=INPUT$(1) 

I FK$= " n " ORK$= " N " THENCOLOR 15,4,4: 


M 

■ ■■■■ ■: 


890 

900 

910 

END 

920 

930 

940 

950 

960 


• • •• . 

. . _ . 


v. '■ ' 


I FK$= " y " ORK$= " Y " THENBEEP : GOTO 1 20 
G0T0900 

REM * You hit tank * 

PUTSPRITE13, (256,192) ,0,20 
PUTSPRI TE6+I , (X ( I ) — X— 2 , 70) ,6,9:P 
UTSPRITE3+I , (X ( I ) -X ,70) , 1 1 ,9: PUTSPRI 
TE1 , (X (I)— X+2,69) ,6,9 
970 GOSUB 1190 

980 SC ! =SC ! +50*ST ( I ) : GOSUB 1 520 : T A=T A 
+ 1 : L I NE ( 255 , 1 6 ) — ( 250— T A*6 ,21) , 1,BF 
990 F0RJ=1T01500: NEXT 
1000 D ( I ) =1 s X ( I ) =3000 

1010 PUTSPRI TE3+ I , (256,192) ,0,20: PUT 
SPRITE6+I , (256,192) ,0,20 
1020 IFHE=1THEN1 100 

1030 IFTA=15THENHE=1 : Q= 1 : G0SUB1060 
1040 RETURN 

1050 IFHE=10R (TA=14AND (D ( 1 ) =OORD (2) = 
O) ) THENRETURN570 

1060 T(Q)=0:ST(Q>=RND(Q)*3+1:D(Q)=0 

1070 X (Q) =RND ( 1 ) *1 100+500: IFX (Q) -X>- 
16ANDX (Q) — X<256THEN1070 
1080 TFHE=1THENST ( 1 ) =0: D (2) =1 : X (2) =3 



mmm 

■ • ■' : 

- 


START IN THE NEXT LE 


Ms 


MmM 




,111 


"■ y > ' '■ 


000 

RETURN 

REM * You won * 

INTERVALON: F0RQ=1T02000: NEXT 
G0SUB1220: J=0 

7A - T c; , ri , l l ooo 4,33> ~ <231 ,63> ’ 1 »BF:LINE( 
26,35) (229,61) , 1 1 , B : C0LQR9: PSET (96 , 

3 7 , 1 : pR 1 NT £ ! , Y ° u WQN .. . colqr 1 3 : pR j ^ 

2 f PR I NT£ 1 , - PRESS ANY KEY T0 " ! C0L0R 
VEL" 

1140 LINE (80, 160) -(179, 168) ,6,BF-C0L 

□Rl: PSET (87, 161) ,6:PRINT£1 , "BONUS: “• 

- C0L0R15: PRINT£1 , SV*2000: SC 1 =SC 1 +SV* 
2000 ‘ 

SV=2: GOSUB 1520 

F0RI=1T050:K$=INKEY$:NEXT 

K$=INKEY$: IFK$=" "THEN1170 
INTERVALOFF: BEEP: RETURN1 30 
REM * Crash * 

__ S0UND0 » 0s SOUND 1 ,5:S0UND2,0:S0UN 
D3 ,13: S0UND4 , 255 : S0UND5 ,15: S0UND6 30 
: S0UND7, O: S0UND8, 16: S0UND9, 16: SOUND 1 

0UND12°56 D11 ,0:S ° UND12,5:S0UND13,0:S 
1210 RETURN 

1220 F0RJ=0T013: PUTSPRITE J , (256,192) 
,0,20: NEXT: RETURN 

4 , BF: GOSUB 1230: GOTO 160 
1470 REM * Write score on screen * 

1 480 SCREEN2 : COLOR 15:LINE(0,0)-( 255 
32) ,1,BF: LINE (0,1 81) -(255, 191) ,1,Bf’ 

Jmc?-7 P ?^T <31 ,0> ’ 1:PRINT£ 1 , “RADAR: " : L 

I ^n ( ^!°i^ <105,30> ’ 15 »B:DRAW”cl5bml5 

, 28u2d 1 r 80u 1 d 2 " 

1500 PSETdll ,0) , 1:PRINT£1 , "AMMU: " : G 
0SUB1 600: PSET (111, 15) , 1:PRINT£1 , "TAN 

1510 PSET (7 , 183) , 1 : PRINT£1 , "SCORE: 

LIVES: TOP: " : GOSUB 1520: GOSUB 15 

60 : GOSUB 1 580 : RETURN 

1 520 A$= " 000000 " : B$=STR$ ( SC ! ) : Q=LEN ( 

B^)-1:MID^(A$,7-Q,Q)=RIGHT^(B$,Q) 

1530 LINE (103-0*8, 183) -(103, 191) ,1,B 
F: PSET (55, 183) , 1 : PRINTfl , A^ 

1 540 I FSC ! >=E X ! THENEX ! =E X ! +5000 : L I =L 
1+1: GOSUB 1560 
1550 RETURN 

1560 C0L0R15: LINE (159, 183) -(168, 191) 

, 1 , BF: PSET (151 , 183) , 1:PRINT£1 ,LI 
1570 RETURN 

1 580 A$= " 000000 " : BT=STR$ (HS ! ) : Q=LEN ( 
B^) -1 : MID* ( AS , 7-Q, Q) =RIGHT* (B$ , Q) 

1590 LINE (255-0*8, 183) -(255, 191) 1 B 

1^ Ann E cv?^ 7 ’ 1 83 } ’ 1 : PR 1 NT£ 1 » = RETURN 

1600 SK-O: F0RJ=151T0147+ (25— SK) *4STE 

P4:DRAW"bm=j; ,6r21 lu5" : NEXT: RETURN 
It 1 °J 0RJ * 1 6 1 TO 1 55+ ( 1 5-T A ) *6STEP6 : DR 

^ j 5 ’ 21r2el h 1 1 2glbr 2u31 2r3d 1 " : 
NEXT : RETURN 

1620 REM * Instructons * 

1630 J=0: I NTERVALON: GOSUB 1860 

1640 L I NE ( O , 0 ) — ( 255 , 36 ) , 4 , BF 

i 1 i DR A W ’' clbm5 ’ 6elrl8 *ld3gll6gld20g 
1 1 2h 1 u20h 1 1 6h 1 u3bm30 , 6elr 1 8-f ld25g 112 

hlulOhll 10gldl0gll2hl u25bm34 , 1 Oe 1 r 1 0 
•f 1 d5g 11 1 Oh 1 u5 " 

1660 DRAW " bm55 ,6elr2fld4-fl2ul6elr2-fl 

x 1 2h 1 u 4h 1 2d 1 6g 1 1 2h 1 u25bm80 , 6e 1 r2 

* ld } 0e 1 If 3g 1 1 -f 1 Og 3h 1 Od 9g 1 1 2h 1 u25 " 


A*/. 












. B:, 


. •' ’ v: 

v>a-!' v 


- Id5gll I0hlu5bml zl^lsl !di °* 

°Z 1 ] *1 1 “20h 116hlu3bml60 , lilr ?s J fd 3^ 

9 1 ! J Oh ! u5b^2 1 1 r 1 2h ^ ® 
h 1 u25 " - e 1 1 f og 1 1 f 1 Ogoh 1 0d9g 112 

^ww"S5gssssris; ( 1 - 6 } • 1 = n 

5: NEXT T EP2w>: PAINT ( 1 , 6) , 1 

1-230 REM * Background * 

of 4 ° ‘ ° > 7 ’ > - < 255 , 79 ) , 1 4 s L I NE ( 0 , 8 

0)-(255, 180) , 10, BF 

t mc° , PRESET ( 0 ’ 7 1 } : FOR I =0T0255STEP8 : L 
INE— ( I +4 , 68+RND ( 1 ) *10) , 14:LINE-(I+8 

( 1 ) * 10> ’ 14: n FXT: PAINT (0,78) ,14 
1260 G0SUB1290 

1 1 ?n°,^ A ^ , ? m40 ’ 180cl 2<n60, 155m90, 150m 
1 70 , lo0n>200 , 1 55m220 ,18011 80bml 22 , 1 49 

clml^.5, 126r 10ml38, 1491 16": PAINT (45 1 

Z? • J? 8 PAINT ( 125, 148) , 1 : CIRCLE (130: 1 

F?Ui 5 i , a^T , ;? :PAINT(130 ’ 176) il*CIRCL 
^ 1 ( i 30 ’J® 0> >31 > 1 m 3 - 1 6 , . 7 s PUTSPR I TEO , 

( 1 2 o , 7 1 ) , 1 , 0 

1280 RETURN 

290 PRESET (0, 106) : F0RJ=0T0255STEP24 
LINE— ( J+24, 104+RND ( 1 ) *4) , 4s NEXT 

. 1 . 3 ?^ PRESET <0 ’ 1 16) :F0RJ=0T0255STEP24 

s LINE ( J+24 , 1 14+RND ( 1 ) *4) ,4: NEXT- P AT 
NT (0, 107) , 4: RETURN -"txr.PAI 

1310 REM * Tank reach headquarter * 

1320 S0UND7 , 56: PLAY"o4-f dge-f dge-f dge-f -f 


R1 ?p-F^ 2 a ’ 40) ~ (231 ^8 ) ,12,BFs COLO 
R 1 - P-ET ( 43 , 4 1 ) , 1 2 s PR I NT£1 , " TANK RE AC 
H HEADQUARTER" ftL 

1340 F0RJ=1T09999: NEXT 
1350 SCREEN2: G0SUB1470 

180> ’ 10 .BE:LINE 
\ 3 ™ RRE ^T < 7< ?,79) : F0RJ=79T0255STEP8 

n L Io E D K,^ +4 ’ 68+RND <D*10), 14: LINE— ( J + 

( 1 } * 10) ’ 14:NEXT = PAINT (100, 78 
) , 14: G0SUB1290 

aV 1 ^-l 32 ’ 82 ’ “ ‘ 55 ’ 72 ’ ’ 1 5 ’ BFs L I ( 

vi! 7 ?. 37,761 . 1, BF: LINE (52, 74) -(50, 

76) ,l,BF: LI NE(42,82)-(45,74) ,1,BF 

DRAW “ c6bm30 , 72e5r 16F5I 26" : PAINT 

(•^u, 71 ) ,6 

l 400 F0RJ=255T01 30STEP- 1 : PUTSPR I TEO , 
» 7 0> i 1 , ST ( I ) +ST ( I ) — 1 : F0RQ=1T040: NE 

A IU, J 

TR 1908 P0RJ=122T055STEP— 1 : PU 
TSPRITE1 , (J ,71 ) , 1 , 17 :F0RQ=1T010: NEXT 

lx j J 

1420 SQSUB1190:PUTSPRITE1, (28,69) 6 
9: PUTSPR I TE2 , ( 36 , 7 1 ) , 6 , 9 : PUTSPR I TE3 ,’ 
(41 ,68) ,6,9: F0RJ=1T03000: NEXT 

1 a 3 ai (8,40> ~ <247,56) ’ 12 , BF: PSET ( 

16,41) ,12: COLOR 1 : PRINT£1 , "YOUR HEADQ 

UARTER IS DESTROYED" : PRINT£1 " 

AND YOU LOSE A LIVE" 

1440 S0UND7 , 56 : PLAY "o4f edf edgdtegg « 

1 4vj0 L I -L I - 1 : GOSUB 1 560 : FORJ = 1 T09999 • 
NEXT: I FL I =0THEN850 TU9999. 

- GQ S , UB 1 220 : LINE (0,33) - (255, 180) 




1 700 DRAW'bmlOO , 63r40u31 20d3r 30u5r5u 
5r 1 0u21 10u21 10d212d5r2u5br4bdlr3bl7d 
6r 4d5r 1 0d35r 80d201 200g 1011 0e30r 11016 
Ou 1 3m7 , 73u 1 Om 1 00 , 75u 1 2bm45 , 1 23r 1 85bm 
238, 139m217, 157bm70, 160rl40bm37, 140m 
64, 158bml20, 1 1 Iu7r2f Id3r5u4r5f 4g41 5u 
415d3gll2" 

1710 CIRCLE (45, 133) , 10: CIRCLE (45, 133 
) , 3 : C I RCLE ( 230 , 1 33 ) , 10: CIRCLE (230, 13 
3) ,3: F0RI=70T0210STEP20: CIRCLE ( I , 153 
) ,7: CIRCLE (I , 153) , 2: NEXT: F0RI=80T021 
0STEP30: CIRCLE (I, 127) ,3:PSET(I , 127) : 
NEXT 

1720 C0L0R12: PRESET (47,40) :PRINT£1 , " 
BY JACOB L. (C) 1986" 

1730 C0L0R8: PRESET (71 , 183) :PRINT£1 , " 
I NSTRUCT I ONS ( Y/N ) ? " 

1740 F0RI=1T050: K$=INKEY$: NEXT 
K$=INKEY$: IFK$=" V THEN 1750 
I FK^= " y " ORK^= " Y " THEN 1 790 
I FK$= " n " ORK$= " N " THENRETURN 
GOTO 1750 

INTERVALOFF: BEEP: CLS: REST0RE216 


1820 

1830 


DRAW" bm55 , Or 1 44g51 1 34h5d30r 1 44u 
30g5d20-f 5h51 134g5e5u20" : C0L0R3: PRESE 
T ( 83 , 1 2 ) : PR I NT£ 1 , " TANK ATTACK " : COLOR 
15: PUTSPR I TEO, (20,8) , 5 , 8: PUTSPRITE1 , 
(219,8) ,5,7 

1810 F0RI=35T0172STEP9:READA$ 

PRESET (7, I) : PRINT£1 , A$: NEXT 
C0L0R7: PRESET ( 79 , 1 83 ) : PR I NT£ 1 , " 
any key" 

FOR 1=1 T050 : K$= I NKEY$: NEXT 
K^= INPUTS ( 1 ) : RETURN 
REM * Tune * 

J=J+ 1 : IFJ>4THENJ=4: RETURN 
A$="cc. a 16a. al6a4acc. a 16a. al6b- 
■f 1 6e . 1 1 6g . a 1 6b - . o5d 1 6d . c 1 6co4bo 
5c ■ o4b — 16a. g 16a4-f 4-f . f 16-f . el6d4b— 4b— 4 
r8o5dd. cl6ccc. o4b — 16b-eg-f -f -f -fr8" 

1890 S0UND7 , 56 : B$=M I D^ ( A$ , (J-l)*32+l 

,32) 

1 900 PLAY " m5000s 1 1 8x b ^ ; " 

1910 RETURN 

1920 REM * Sprites & machinecode * 

1 930 RESTORE 1 980: FORSC ! =6 1 440 ! T06 1 56 
9 ! : READ J : POKESC ! , J : NEXT: DEFUSR=61 442 
! :DEFUSR 1=6 1493! 

1940 FOR 1=1 4336T0 1 47 1 4 
1 950 READA* : VPOKE I , VAL ( " 8th " +A$ ) : NEXT 
1960 FOR 1=1 4752T01 4880STEP32: FORJ=OT 
07 : READA^ : VPOKE I + J , VAL ( " 8<h " +A$ ) : NEXT 

J,I 

1970 RETURN 

1 980 DATA9 ,7,38, 240 ,46,0,70,35,126,1 

28.71 . 126.46.223.38.23.17.32.0. 25.16 
,253,87,6,31,14,153,205,101,240,95,4 
3,205, 101,240,35,205,114,240,43 
1990 DATA16, 245, 123,205,114,240,43,2 

1 . 175. 186.32.227.201 

2000 DATA38 , 240 ,46,0,70,35,126,46,22 

4.38.23.17.32.0. 25. 16.253.87.6.31 . 14 
, 153,205,101,240,95,35,205,101 ,240,4 
3,205,114,240,35 

2010 DATA 16, 245, 123,205, 114,240,35,2 
1 , 175,186,32,227,201 ,243,237,105,237 
,97,13,0,0,237,120,12,251 ,201 
2020 DATA243 , 237 ,105,8,124, 246 ,64,23 

7.121.8.13.237.121 . 12.251 .201 


HHH 


mm 




•A*.V 


' .• • #• 


Wv W 













30 DATA01 ,01 ,01,01 ,01 ,01 ,0,-f c , -f c ,0 
,01,01,01,01,01,01,80,80,80, 80 , 80 , 80 
, 0 , 3-f , 3-f , 0 , 80 , 80 , 80 , 80 , 80 , 80 
2040 DAT AO , 0 , 0 , 07 , -f -f , -f -f , 07 , 7-f , -f f , i -f , 
80 , 7f , eO , ed , 4d , 3-f , 0 , 0 , 0 , eO , eO , eO , eO , 
fe,ff ,-ff ,01 ,fe,07,b7,b2,-f c 
2050 DATA01 , 0 1 , 0 1 , 07 , 06 , 06 , 07 , 7-f , f -f , 

-f -f , 80 , 7-f , eO , ed , 4d , 3-f , 80 , 80 , 30 , eO , 60 , 
60,e0,f e,-f f ,-f -f ,01 , -f e , 07, b7 , b2 , f c 
2060 DATAO ,0,0, 0 , 03 , 3-f , 03 , 1 -f , 3-f , 20 , 1 

-f , 30 , 15 , 0-f , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , eO , eO , eO , -f c , f 

e, 02,f c ,06,54, f 8,0,0 

2070 DATAO ,0,0,0, 03 , 03 , 03 , 1 -f , 3-f , 20 , 1 

-f ,30, 15, Of ,0,0, 0,0, 80, 80, 60,60, eO,fc 

, f e , 02 , f c , 06 , 54 , f 8 , 0 , V 

2080 DATAO ,0,0,0,0,07,01, 07 , Of , 07 , Od 
, 07 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , O , 0 , cO , cO , f O , f 8 , f 0 
, 58 , f 0 , 0 ,0,0, 0 

2090 DATAO , O , 0 ,0,0,01, O 1,07, Of , 07 , Od 
, 07 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 80 , 40 , cO , f 0 , f 8 , f 
0, 58, f 0,0, 0,0,0 

2 1 00 DATAO , 7f , 02 , 07 , 3f , 47 , c7 , f f , f f , 7 
f ,3f , 12,92,7-f , 0,0,0, f 0,0,81 ,c3,ff ,eO 
, cO , cU , SO , , O , O , 30 , 0 , 0 

2110 DATAO , Of , O , 8 1 , c3 , f f , 07 , 03 , 03 , 0 1 
| , 0 , 0 , 0 , 01 , 0 , 0 , 0 , fe,40,e0,fc ,e2,e3,ff 
, f f , t e « t c ,48, 49, fe, 0,0 

2 1 20 DATAO , 02 , 02 , 40 , 24 , 07 , 4f , 1 d , 2f , O 

f , 7f , 08 , 0 4 , 02 . O , O , 0 , 20 , 02 ,84,88, f 0 , f 
4 , f 0 , f O , dc , f 2 , 23 , 24 , 22 , 0 , 0 
2 1 30 DAT A 80 , 80 , 60 , 80 , 80 , 30 , 30 , 80 , 80 , 
80,80,30,81 ,31 ,87,87,02,02,02,02,02, 


•: f \- j I** - ' *"7 f 1“ J A’"? ' I M 

mi 02 , ---i 5 , - J ^ 7 ? 


02 ,c2,c2 

Bill 2 1 40 DATAO , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 07 , 3f , f f , f f , 3f , 07 

llllll * 


0 - 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , eO , + c , f f , f f , f c , 


2100 DATA 1 8 , 3c ,7e,ff,ff, 7e ~ 3c 7 IS, 0,1 

8,:.c,7e,7e, 3 c,13,0,0,0,18,3c,3c,18,0 

f l " ’ ° * u ° *18,18, 0 ,0,0,0, 0 ,0,0, 08 ,0,0, 


ci.&v DATA "In this game you 'r 




■-tro 


170 DATA "the last cannon, which 

top " 

180 DATA"the enemy army from reachi 

g" 

2190 DATA"your general staff's headq 
uar-" ^ 

220 ° DATA "ter .It can move foreward a 
nd 11 

2210 DATA "backward on a long rail, an 
d you" 

2220 DATA"have a radar, so you can se 
e the" 

2230 DATA "whole battl ef ield. You must 
hi t " 

^ n <J ^^A" 15 tanks and one helicopte 

2250 DATA"bef ore you can go on to th 
e 

^.^.60 DATA "next level, where the enemi 
es" 

2^7u DATA "moves quicker. You die if a 
2280 DATA "shoot hits you, or a tank r 

each 

2290 DATA "your headquarter , but you c 


S&W.WV.-A 


an 


2300 DATA"get an extra li 

y" 

23 1 0 DAT A " 5000 points." 


f or ever 


IF IT RUNS - WE WANT TO 


message which refers to a particular line number. But 
this isn’t always as useful as it sounds because it may 
not be that line which contains the fault. For example, 
the line may contain a READ command, but the program 
will crash because of a lack of DATA for this line to 
READ. The fault actually lies in the DATA statement. 

For this reason you must take particular care over 
DATA entries. Some programs can contain a couple of 
hundred numbers and strings in DATA lines. Miss out 
just one item, or one comma, and the program will fail 
through DATA starvation. 

Make sure you are entering exactly what is shown in 
the listing. Don’t type a zero when it should be the letter 
O, or a small I when it should be the number one. 

REM statements can usually be omitted, which saves 
time and effort. But they do help to explain what is going 
on. That’s handy when you come back to a program 
after a break and want to make some changes. And 
watch out for GOTOs. If one of these commands directs 
the program to a REM line which you’ve omitted, the 
program will crash. 

If, in the end, you still can’t get the program to work, 
then let us know. But PLEASE WRITE, don’t telephone. 
It’s virtually impossible to de-bug a program over the 
phone, and the intricacies of a program are usually 
known only to the original programmer, who is never 
around to answer your questions! 


As you grow more familiar with your micro, and 
become confident that you can produce a game or 
program of interest to all our readers, why not send it in? 
But we have to insist on tape or 3.5 inch disk copies, as 
we haven’t the time to type in programs ourselves. 

Your covering letter should include instructions on 
how to use or play the program, as well as a brief 
description of any interesting programming techniques 
and a list of the main variables. 

We will, of course, pay for any listings we print, exactly 
how much depending on the quality of the program — 
NOT the length! 


Entering your listings 


Most of the (fortunately few) complaints we get about 
listings can be traced to incorrect typing of the program. 
So it’s worth making a few points about how to enter 
listings, and problems to watch out for. 

Sometimes you will see a row of letters or other 
characters in a PRINT statement. This happens when 
the program, as supplied, contains graphics characters 
which our printer doesn’t recognise. If the particular 
character is important then we’ll tell you what it should 
be in the introduction to the program. 

When a program crashes, you will often get an error 




V 

pH . 1 Wm 







Send your hig| $cores to: High Scores. MSX Computing. 38-42 Hampton 

Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW1 1 OJE 




Game 

Name 

Alien 8 

Andrew Talbot (Bridlington) 

Alpha Blaster 

Mohamad Shuib (Pontypridd) 

Barnstormer 

Graham Dixon (Lincolnshire) 

Battleship Clapton II 

RS Clark (Bradford) 

Beamrider 

Sean Baxter (Qyfed) 

Blagger 

Euan Marshall (Epping) 

Boom 

Christopher Swain (Kent) 

Boulderdash 

Alan Jones (Streatham) 

Bounder 

Johan Karda (Nonway) 

Boxing 

Philpott (Chaddesden) 

Buck Rogers 

Neil Macfall 

Centipede 

Tracy Randles (Penrion) 

Chiller 

Martin Allen (Weybridge) 

Choro Q 

Scott Fielding (T ruro) 

Circus Charlie 

Ian Bucklow (Worksop) 

Disk Warrior 

Chris Needham (Banstead) 

Dogfighter 

Neil Sims (Derbyshire) 

Elidon 

Andrew T albot (Bridlington) 

Eric and the Floaters 

Sean Baxter (Dyfed) 

Finders Keepers 

A. Munro (N. Yorks) 

Fire Rescue 

Mark Lowles (Greenock) 

Flight Deck 

D. Booth (Southampton) 

Fruity Frank 

Lesley Robinson (Blairgowrie) 

Galaga 

Gary Barnes (Holland) 

Ghostbusters 

Laurence Burke (Ireland) 

Golf 

Joseph Gleeson (Ireland) 

Gridtrap 

Lynn Scott 

Gunfright 

Neil Aldritt (Parkhurst) 

Heist 

Ashok Ras 

Hero 

Gerry Van Cleef (Holland) 

Highway 

Dermot Long (Ireland) 

Hopper 

Christopher Rutherford (Hexham) 

Hotshoe 

Dan Gavik (Denmark) 

Hunchback 

David McEwan (Lanarkshire) 

Hustler 

Derek Powers (Milton Keynes) 

Hyper Rally 

Dermot Long (Ireland) 

Hyper Sports 1 

Mark Bosselli (Kenton) 

Hyper Sports II 

L Henry (Battersea) 

Hyper Sports III 

Richard Reynolds (Brampton) 

Hyper Viper 

Helen Carter (Mkt Weighton) 

International Karate 

Ian Povey (Nowan) 

Jet Fighter 

Andrew T albot (Bridlington) 

Jet Set Willy II 

Sally Wood (T urkey) 

Kings Valley 

Paschal Wilson (N. Ireland) 

Knightmare 

Morten Sorink (Norway) 

Lazy Jones 

Mark Sutton (Rayleigh) 

Les Flics 

Rob Cranston (Northampton) 

Le Mans 

Jacob Poviah 

Manic Miner 

W. Wither (Scotland) 

Maxima 

Les Lynch (Worsley) 

Monkey Academy 

Michael Masson (Fraserburgh) 

Mopiranger 

Ian West (Aylesbury) 

Mutant 

Mark Drabwell (Essex) 

Nightshade 

Paul Grave (Caithness) 

Ninja 

Marion Worsley (Orpington) 

Oh Mummy 

Paul T ooke (Whitley Bay) 

Oh No! 

J C Ledesma (London) 

Oil’s Well 

Andrew T albot (Bridlington) 

Panic Junction 

A. Stubbs (Warrington) 

Pastfinder 

Daniel Goodwin (Evesham) 

Pillbox 

Roger Worsley (Orpington) 

Pinball 

A Baker (London) 

Pitfall II 

Arild Tonnessen (Nonway) 

Polar Star 

P. French (Walsall) 

Punchy 

William Sanchez (Gibraltar) 

Price Magik 

Barrie Fleming (Glasgow) 


Score 

Stage 

49% 

89,235 

279,955 

12 

97,300 

133,380 

25 

231 ,520 
99,240 

34 

59,848 

F/4 

286,726 

5 

— 

10 

310,900 

6 

53,795 

7 

33,481 

42,380 

1,198,460 

105 

1 ,400,000 
10,100 
94% 
1,844,160 
1 8,323 
29,540 
6,410 
21 ,000 
244,010 
$999,900 
28 under par 
558,120 
$150,000 

51 

384,201 

692,120 

Pro 

339,360 

4 

100,050 

3 

187,575 

19 

2,700,000 
8 shots 
239,500 
2,050,800 

51 

500.500 
59,713 

1 27.500 
999,999 
214,950 

1 20 objects 
5,642,600 

928 

238,020 
1 49,650 
1 00,200 
42,530 

8 

117,321 

52 

211,120 

120 

305,300 

620,400 

44 

737 

7 

137,000 

13% 

23,550 
5,030 
76,250 
1 98,400 
14,919 

10 

24,205 

2,800 

3 

1 ,240,680 
1 99,000 
289,990 

8 

6,959,870 

12% 

18 



v yj&vv.yAjiV.vW.v. 



Game 

Name 

Score 

Stage 

Pyramid Warp 

Marcus Sear (Botley) 

820,758 


River Raid 

D. J. Cowell (Blackburn) 

73,450 

38 

Road Fighter 

Richard Cobelli (Faversham) 

998,675 

7 

Roller Ball 

A Baker (London) 

3,120,180 


Sasa 

Nigel Sims (Derbyshire) 

200, 1 95 


Scion 

Gary Barnes (Holland) 

67,900 


Soccer 

David Orpington (Camberley) 

40-0 


Space Walk 

Stephen McCloskey 

1 ,846,200 


Spooks and Ladders 

Helen Carter (Mkt Weighton) 

189,930 

79 

Step Up 

Mick Bedwell (Whitstable) 

60,250 


Stop The Express 

Johan Kovda (Nonway) 

7,360 

2/2 

Super Cobra 

Ian West (Aylesbury) 

501,100 

62 

Sweet Acorn 

Brian Richardson (Ossett) 

6,348,460 

240 

T ennis 

Mark Drabwell (Essex) 

6-0, 6-0 


The Snowman 

Ole Morten Finnset (Norway) 

36,510 


The Wreck 

Niclas Penn Shog (Sweden) 

23,975 


Time Bandits 

K. Baird (Beaumont) 

9,990 

8 

Time Curb 

Amy Louise Goulsbra (Lines) 

1 76,050 


Time Pilot 

Uilam Vu Ong (London) 

689,000 


T rack and Field 1 

V. Williams (Kirkby) 

266,640 


Track and Field II 

Martin Green (London) 

500,300 


Turmoil 

Peter Bell (Hexham) 

1 1 ,740 


Vacumania 

T ony Watson (Boroughbridge) 

22,340 


Valkyr 

Martin Green (London) 

23,975 






'JB 


r (s 




.. 


<Avwvi 


MSX West 

C/0 Mark Smith 
14 Beech Hill 
Wellington 
Somerset 
Tel : N/A 


Yamaha DX/MSX 
Users Club 

C/O Tony Wride 
PO Box 6 
Ripon 

North Yorks HG4 2QT 


MK-MSX 

C/O Jeff Whiting 
8 Blackheath Crescent 
Bradwell Common 
Milton Keynes 
MK13 8AD 
Tel: (0908) 674065 


MSX Link 

C/O David Webb 
1 1 Ayscough Avenue 
Spalding 

Lincolshire PE1 1 2QB 
Tel: N/A 


The MSX Club (Wales) 

C/O P J Morgan 
230 Dunvant Road 
Swansea 

West Glamorgan SA2 
7SR 


The MSX Computer 
Club 

C/O Dean Adams 
1 73 Hampden Way 
Southgate 
London N14 


MSX User Group 

C/O Andrew Phillips 
Room 5 
1 4 Moor Street 
Ormskirk 
Lancashire 


Memory Alpha 

C/O Ross Carter 

1 6 Mayfield Road 

North End, Portsmouth 

Hampshire 

Tel: (Portsmouth) 

696543 


MSX Users’ Club 

C/O VW. Warren 
32 Stafford Road 
Great Yarmouth 
NR31 OEX 


MSX’r 

C/O Tony Brown 
23 Hall Street 
Foham 

Cambridgeshire 
CB7 5BN 
Tel: N/A 


I I M. ■ 

MSX Ireland 

j C/O Liam Lynch 
84 Orchardville 
Crescent 

Finaghy Road North 
Northern Ireland 
BT1 0 0 JT 








Kuma Computers Ltd., Unit 12, Horseshoe Park 
Horseshoe Road, Pangbourne, Berks RG8 7JW. 

Please send full catalogue on MSX products. 


Name .. 
Address 


Phone 


MSX Computer 


I own a 


MSX/12/86 








j 


jfpjy 









A' 

Bff •ja fly 

1 


y ! 




»■ 1 it i y l 







9 

|R 




1 




































WKmm 



W.OT i 


ttUJT v 

■'Ll «l 


c > — 

.9 , . 0 . 

(( ( (c > > > J> 

1 ^99 SB ^00 ^ 

» 1 

I < 


- Q • V' ' ^ * 5 » . ’ 


; Ju ybJ ' • . Vk 9 COO< P^ P T-, /. i . 

Vj '* » * «•* . 

|nI ^ K U ^ ^ j , » * V £»< 

■> « . » ’ . $ •» • * » 1 * J • * ( 

*.,<■ '%• * .1 * *• , * ^ . * 

‘ #v _ 1 * * 


K< < 


>>- 


*3 # T I fSJ ^ K < «*ar > » ; = v ■> 

»■ » • » . V, •». ..», . f. * * *l.'n ‘ " ^ s • *f 

. 4 • * 1 « * . -"• 

* 

rv? 


< 

» 



\\ 



AT LAST YOU CAN GET TOP QUALITY 
GAMES AND EXCITEMENT FOR YOUR MACHINE 


SUPER CYCLE 

You're sitting on 750 cc's of screaming 
machine and it's you and your cycle 
against the road, the curves the other 
motorcycles and the clock. 
It takes guts and skill - racing was never 

so fast and furious. 

It takes split second timing, fine judge- 
ment, and nerves of steel. Hesitate, and 
there's no way you’ll win. Act rashly, and 

you’ll crash. 

You race through progressively harder 
courses. Finish successfully, and you get 
to try the next one. But don’t push your 

machine too far. 
SUPER CYCLE, the challenge - have you 
got what it takes to win it all? 

Cassette 


CYBERUN 

In the dark reaches of the Amobeus 
Nebula stands the isolated senes of stars 
and planets, the Beta Gamma System. 
Once the Cybertron is free from the 
Antiplasmic Lattice, and becomes 
exposed to positive matter Space, it 
crystallises to form Cybemite, the 
hardest substance in the known 
Universe, resistant to all forms of heat 
and energy, allowing the wielders to 
mine the greatest form of energy ever, 
the Stars. Those who control the 
Zebarema, can control the Galaxy. 

The command module is ready and 
awaits only the pre-launch computer 
checks to secure Lift Off 
And so begins the greatest journey of all 
time, the race through Space for 
command of the Universe. 

THE CYBERUN... 

Cassette 1 2 




THE BIGGEST GAMES EVER ON MSX 


WINTER GAMES 

The Moment of Truth. 

You're an athlete at the 1988 Winter 
Games at Calgary, Alberta Canada. 
You're about to move across snow and 
ice with as much speed, strength, 
endurance and grace as you can muster 

in the blustery cold. 

Enter into competition in the world's 
foremost amateur sports spectacle. You'll 
match your skills against the top athletes 
from a hundred countries in Bobsled, Ski 
Jump, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skating, 
Hot Dog Aenals and the Biathlon. 

Compete against the computer or your 
fnends and family. One to eight players. 

Cassette 




GAUNTLET 

The ultimate role playing fantasy 
game. 

Enter the world of monsters and mazes. 
Travel the path of mystery and combat 
as Thyra the Valkyne, beautiful and 
fearless; Thor the Warrior, bold and 
brave; Questor the Elf. impish and 
cunning; or Merlin The Wizard, mystiqaj 
and wise. 

Your way is barred by an array of 
monsters and legions of enemy beings 
but they are not your only foe in the quest 
for food, treasure and magic potions - 
your fellow players compete in search 
of the same good bounty. 

Cassette 


Coming Soon - 



Head - “The all time classic”.